The Recovery That Isn't, And Guess What The Culprit Is?

Not even through the first month of the year and the hits just keep on coming.

Retail sales should rise 3.4 percent this year, down from 4.2 percent growth in 2012, as higher payroll taxes cut into discretionary spending for consumers, the world’s largest retail trade association said on Monday.

More taxes taken away from consumers means they have less to spend? Who could have seen that coming?!?

This perpetual recovery that we have supposedly been in since 2009 (Krugman says so!) has been mostly a one step forward, one step back affair, which even toddlers figure out right away isn’t a good plan for ever getting anywhere.