Consumers Slam the Brakes: May Retail Sales Collapse Signals Warning Shot for U.S. Economy

May’s Retail Collapse: A Reality Check for the Recovery Narrative The Commerce Department’s latest report hit like a hammer: retail sales fell 0.9% in May, a steeper decline than the 0.6% contraction expected by Dow Jones economists. That’s not a blip. It’s a red flare in the night sky. Worse still, this decline comes on the heels of a revised 0.1% drop in April. Two months in the red—and yet we’re still being told the economy is “resilient.” Remove autos from the equation? Still down 0.3%. Even when you cut out volatile components—like gas, building supplies, and cars—the so-called “control group” rose just 0.4%. That’s the metric the government uses to polish up GDP numbers. Without it? The economy’s flatlining.…