Remember the ju-ju bones?… Well….  The U.S. Main Street economic engine is almost firing on all cylinders as brick-and-mortar retailers drop their historic complaints of e-commerce impacting their sales and foot-traffic, and instead begin seeing the real life consequences from a resurgent American middle-class.

Target CEO Brian Cornell: “There’s no doubt that, like others, we’re currently benefiting from a very strong consumer environment — perhaps the strongest I’ve seen in my career.”  “We’re seeing a great consumer response … unprecedented traffic. As we go back and look, we’ve never seen traffic growth like this.” (link)

The growth in retail foot-traffic is a critical KPI for the economy.  Despite economic and business school theory (pushed over the past 20 years), everything of consequence is dependent on a thriving American middle-class; blue and white collar.

Target CEO Brian Cornell is not alone in his optimism:

  • Walmart VP of Investor Relations Dan Binder: “Job growth is great. Wages are up. Credit is expanding … So the consumer is in great shape. In the surveys that we look at, they tell us that they are feeling good about their financial condition.”
  • Home Depot CFO Carol B. Tomé: “As we look to the back half of the year, we continue to expect strong economic growth, with the backdrop of a healthy home improvement environment. Homeowners continue to enjoy home price appreciation, and rising wages and low unemployment have driven consumer confidence to record high levels.”
  • Macy’s CEO Jeffrey Gennette: “Based on the first-half performance, our strong execution and the anticipation of continued healthy consumer spending, we’re raising both sales and earnings guidance for the year.”
  • Lowe’s CFO Marshall A. Croom: “We expect to see solid sector growth driven by gains in employment which should boost disposable income and consumer spending.”

The middle-class economic engine can/is self-sustaining around the basic principles of MAGAnomics.  Additionally, finalizing America-first trade deals could explode U.S. GDP growth as investment pours into the U.S.A.  We will soon need to build a bigger-engine to handle all the high-octane investment fuel.
The economic models of the entire last generation+ are based on the assumptions of continuing globalist economics which advances, and has advanced, the interest of Wall Street over Main Street.  They were driving a “service-driven economy” message.
The investing class economy, ie. another name for a ‘service-driven economy’, has been the only source of historic reference for approximately three decades. These talking heads convinced themselves that a “service driven economy” was the ONLY economy ever possible for the U.S. in the future.  WATCH:


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Back in January 2017 Deutsche Bank began thinking about it, applying new models, trying to conceptualize and quantify MAGAnomics, and trying to walk out the potential ramifications.  They began talking about Trump doubling the U.S. GDP growth rate when all U.S. investment groups couldn’t yet fathom the possibility.
As we have continued to share, CTH believes the paycheck-to-paycheck working middle-class are going to see a considerable rise in wages and standard of living.  How high can wages rise?… that depends on the pressure; and right now the pressure is massive.  I’m not going to dismiss the possibility we could see 10 to 20% increases in year-over-year wage growth in multiple Main Street economic sectors.
Winnamins.  We need lots of them…
Now here’s the critical leadership part…. After two-plus decades of Wall Street emphasis on inventory and supply chain management: Who is going to be bold enough to ramp up inventories high enough to prepare for, and take advantage of, the upcoming MAGAnomic holiday season?


 

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