In the aftermath of the abysmal start to the 2014 holiday selling season, one thing has (or should have) become abundantly clear: America's middle class, which refuses to lever up to idiotic proportions as the memory of 2007 and the subsequent crash will remain all too vivid for a generation, is dying a painful death, best summarized by the following WSJ chart [3]of spending and income patterns. What should be immediately obvious is that even as spending has picked up fractionally since the start of the depression, incomes have not, which is, in a nutshell, the heart of the US economic problem.
[4]
So yes, 99% of American's population may be dumb, as per Dr. Gruber, but at least they have seen their per capita incomes go absolutely nowhere, even as their spending has actually risen modestly.
But for every 999,999 losers there is 1 winner. And since America has quite a few multiples of "999,999", here, thanks to James Montier, are all the winners of Bernanke and Yellen's central planning:
[5]
Now, who else can't wait to find out just how much of a bigger chart we are going to need when the data from the 2010-2019 bucket is finally available?
