Your Take on the Recovery?

Here’s a perplexing new twist in the story of America’s supposed recovery from The Great Recession. While auto manufacturers can barely keep up with demand, sales at Wal-Mart, Macy’s and some other big retailers have gone flat. What’s going on here?  The easy explanation is that auto showrooms attract a different class of shopper, one with more discretionary income. Our take, however, is  that more than a few Wal-Mart shoppers who have cut back on non-essential purchases are in fact driving shiny new SUVs.

While this might seem paradoxical, there’s a simple explanation – namely, that even households that don’t have two nickels to rub together at the end of the month can easily qualify for a $40,000, five-year car loan. With interest rates as low as they are, especially for big-ticket items purchased on credit, the buy-now- pay-later engine of the U.S. economy is able to thrive even with real incomes stagnant and new employment coming mainly from minimum-wage jobs.

The Question of the Week is:  What’s your take on the recovery? Is it about to come to a screeching halt?  Did it ever really begin?  Will the economy ever return to “normal,” whatever that means? Are college grads doomed to live with their parents until they are 35 or older, like they do in Spain?  Anecdotes drawn from personal experience and the depressing lives of your neighbors are welcome.