Cotten Timberlake of Bloomberg reports that the big retailers are:
... discounting earlier than ever as they brace for the weakest holiday shopping season since 2009.
For those who are not members of the 1 percent, the gloom has not descended but steadily gathered as:
For the fourth year in a row, disposable incomes ... have only inched up. As result, low-income Americans will again have a less-merry season than affluent consumers, who are more flush thanks in part to a 26 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index this year.
So Walmart has decided to bring a little cheer by:
… dangling a 32-inch flat-screen TV for $98, down from $148 last year.
So goes the “recovery."