from Birch Gold Group:

From Peter Reagan at Birch Gold Group

You don’t need a degree in economics to understand that the economy is driven primarily by consumer spending.

When the pandemic started, that spending slowed, thanks in part to the panicked response by government officials who shut down businesses for weeks or months in 2020. (Remember “Two weeks to stop the spread”?)

But starting in 2021, consumer spending finally started picking up again (along with red-hot inflation). And that’s a big economic force! In fact, consumer spending on everything from gas and groceries to mansions and Maseratis now accounts for 68.4% or more than two-thirds of the nation’s gross national product (GDP).