from Lance Roberts at Stawealth.com:
"As you can see the trend in the data is clearly weakening and is unlikely to change much in coming months as higher healthcare costs, and taxes, weighs on consumer's disposable incomes."
"Retail sales are not currently indicating that the consumer is about to "drop kick" a game winning field goal in the coming year. While the consumer is definitely "not dead," as evidenced by increased leverage in the recent credit reports, they are also not currently in the position to substantially increase demand five years into an economic recovery. My perception is that the "struggle through" economy is likely to remain in 2014 which will disappoint the economic bulls."