While many pundits are talking about recessionary type conditions – we would like to point out that the actual environment is much better than this, and in many regards running at about the same pace now that we did in Q1. We acknowledge that GDP growth has disappointed this year, and has come in much lower than bullish forecasts from Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs. Much of the delta in GDP has come from a push-out in the housing recovery as well as a slowdown in government spending. On the consumption and private sector side, things are hanging in. Some rays of light: 1) Retail Sales are strong – the weekly sales surveys from Redbook and ICSC are running at the high growth rates of the year (exhibiting...
