The state of the American consumer as 2017 begins

 - by New Deal democrat

Along with monthly and quarterly long and short leading indicators, and the high frequency weekly indicators, the fourth primary method I use to forecast the US economy is to monitor the health of the American consumer.  It is the system I used to forecast the 2007 recession way back in my early Daily Kos days.

My update as of the beginning of 2017 is up at XE.com.