“Choiceful, discerning, thoughtful.” That is how Walmart’s boss, Doug McMillon, described consumers on the American retail giant’s quarterly earnings call on February 21st. That may be so. What they are not, at least in aggregate, is careful, thrifty or frugal. Last year consumer spending increased even as real disposable income declined by more than 6%. The splurge continued in January, as America shopped its way through a warm winter, buoyed by 517,000 new jobs and a sizeable inflation-linked bump in social-security payments. Last month retail sales rose by 3% month on month, and consumer sentiment reached its highest level in more than a year. Those
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