Economic Insights – April 2016

Let’s take a serious look at the U.S. economy and how it’s likely to perform over the remainder of 2016.

Let’s start with consumers, the heart of the economy. Retail sales were soft in February, but the decline was driven by gas station sales as lower gas prices drove down revenues. This has been a major theme lately, with gas station sales dropping 4.4 percent in February and down at a 30.7 percent annual rate in the past three months. Excluding gas stations, retail sales were up 0.2 percent in February and were up a healthy 4......