It was all inflation, running at 3.4%: Advance retail sales in April up 3% year over year, but flat from March to April

You're just shelling out more for the same stuff, not buying new stuff.

“Today’s retail sales report reflects a pullback in consumer spending that retailers have called out in recent earnings reports,” said Claire Tassin, retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult.

Compared with last April, sales were up 3%, but the Census Bureau doesn’t adjust the data for inflation, which came in at 3.4% on an annual basis in April, according to the latest consumer price index report. That suggests that the sales gains from a year ago are “entirely attributable to inflation, not increased consumer demand,” Tassin said.

Barron's, reproduced here.

Democrats really should nominate Gavin Newsom so that he can make the whole country just like California

 Flash mobs invade luxury L.A. retailers with brute force, overwhelming numbers... 

Ransack NIKE store in front of shocked customers... 

166-year-old high-end shop in San Fran warns: Could be last year... 

Workers in Pelosi Federal Building told to stay home due to crime...

CA assisted deaths surge 63%...

'Drunk' California judge shot wife with one of his 47 guns...
 

Another Observer Notices The Broken Link Between The Monetary Base And Markets

Kopin Tan, who otherwise believes the Fed has been juicing markets, for Barron's, here:

"[W]hile the Fed tripled its balance sheet, not all that money gushed through to the real economy—one reason why inflation is just 2%—as banks funneled the money to mend their balance sheets, corporations hoarded cash, and Americans paid off loans and saved more.

"Between 1960 and 1999, ratcheting up the supply of money often directly lifted stock prices. In the 1970s, for instance, stocks' annual returns were 70% correlated to the growth in money supply. But that link has recently broken down: year-over-year growth in money supply slowed in 2009 and 2012, but stocks rallied in both of those years."

The IRS: Another Reason Not To Use A Credit Card

They're snooping on your transactions.

From an article in Barron's in September (link):

In a new program launched this year, the IRS is cross-checking taxpayers' reported incomes with their credit-card records.

So if you took a luxury world tour in a year you drew a modest income and left a trail on plastic, be prepared to defend your tax return. Through these credit-card checks, the IRS hopes to snag, among others, unscrupulous filers of Schedule C, used by taxpayers reporting profits and losses from businesses.

All in all, Schedule C filers are estimated to report just 57% of their income, leaving some $68 billion in unpaid taxes each year.