by Clif Droke, Gold Strategies Review
Gold Seek
In the six years since the recovery began, there has been endless debate over the strength of the U.S. economy. There are basically two sides of the debate. Those taking the positive side maintain the economy has almost returned to its pre-crisis levels and is on a firm footing. The opposing camp maintains that while the upper classes are in fine shape, the middle class is still hurting from the residual damage inflicted by the housing bubble implosion and credit crash. Is one side entirely mistaken or is there truth to both assertions?
And what about the U.S. retail picture? The following graph shows our New Economy Index (NEI), which is a real-time measure of the overall strength or weakness in the U.S. retail economy. As the chart shows, NEI is testing its previous all-time high and may well make a token new high by the end of this week.