Economy stinks even worse

Bloomberg speculates the lack of retail spending may be due to lack of jobs:

A lack of jobs may prompt Americans to keep focusing on replenishing depleted nest eggs, hurting sales at retailers from CarMax Inc. (KMX) to Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (RRGB) Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley were among those cutting forecasts after the figures, indicating the economy slowed further in the second quarter.

The data are “consistent with a weakening growth backdrop,” said Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research LLC in New York. “There’s still this propensity for consumers to boost their rate of savings, which is what you’d expect in an environment where they are very skeptical about the outlook for the labor market.”

We hesitate to disagree with a professional economist, but we doubt that consumers aren't buying because they want to build up their .01% interest rate savings accounts.  We suspect households are not visiting CarMax or Red Robin because they don't have enough money.