The U.S. economy as measured by its Gross Domestic Product - GDP / see Figure 1-over the last 50 years has been a steamroller. Figure 1. U.S. GDP Fueled by retail purchases - Figure 2 -- the U.S. economy historically doesn't slow down, but rather decelerates, with those pauses coming every decade or so. Over the last 40 years we have spent approximately 3.75 years, or 9% of time in what economists call recessionary growth. With the economy in growth mode over 90% of the time, only one of those four recessions shows up in Figure 1 - that blip down in 2008. Figure 2. Monthly Retail Sales With such a strong long-term ... (full story)