The U.S. consumer accounts for over 70% of the U.S. economy. Our ability to spend money recklessly appears to finally be catching up with us. For those still holding out for a second half economic recovery I’ll point you to this chart:
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Consumer spending has only declined minimally from peak to trough thus far. In both the ’73 & ’81 recessions consumer spending declined 2.5%+ year over year before bottoming. We have yet to reach that level and in my opinion this recession is far more devastating than either of those.
![Cullen Roche](https://pragcap.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Headshot2022-1-144x144.png)
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.