A warning from Walmart about the health of the American consumer

“Choiceful, discerning, thoughtful” is how Walmart’s boss, Doug McMillon, described American consumers on February 21st, as he presented the retail behemoth’s quarterly results. That may be so. What they aren’t, at least in aggregate, is frugal. Last year consumer spending shot up even as real disposable incomes declined by more than 6%. America splurged on in January, shopping its way through a warm winter buoyed by 517,000 new jobs and a chunky inflation-linked bump in social-security cheques. Retail sales rose by 3% month on month, and consumer sentiment reached its highest level in more than a year. Those looking for evidence of a “soft landing”, where the economy avoids a recession despite tighter monetary policy, found solace in the American consumer.