As some grouping predicted, Americans rattling did pay inferior this time Holiday Season and today mortgage rates are dropping because of it.

Weak receipts in Dec capped soured a assemblage in which consumer outlay posted its slowest year-over-year ontogeny since 2002.

Because consumer outlay makes up two-thirds of the economy, this variety of scarred delay has farther-reaching implications than meet at the change run for U.S. retailers.

Let’s do a hurried flashback to mid-October 2007.