Uncle Sam Wants Your Ass!

The math is clear: 2/3ths of US GDP depend on consumer spending and 15 million people are out of work. Can't just depend on the luxury (otherwise known as the "bailed-out") trade to lift all boats. Employment numbers for May 2010 were miserable: 431K new hiring, mostly government census workers, 41,000 private sector workers of which about 31,000 were temporary workers. The private sector hired 10,000 new full-time workers last month! Wooowooo!

Not surprisingly, retail sales fell in May, except in one area: premium toilet paper. According to the New York Times , consumers are chancing two-ply over one ply. Not only that, they're actually splurging on a new product, premium toilet tissue, which consists of 3-ply! Can you spare a square? Or does it show that our economy is actually in the toilet, and that we're right to think that economists are pulling "recovery" numbers out of their asses?