Here’s what I think: People haven’t bought much for five years. Our patio umbrellas are finally shot, our cars are held together with coat hanger wire, we haven’t vacationed, we buy the cheap beer — you know, living an austere (but fair!) lifestyle that the morons voted for five years ago.
Over these five years, we’ve slowly paid down our credit cards and feel like we’ve been down long enough. We’re starting to buy stuff again out of necessity. And we have these pretty much clean credit cards sitting there.
Screw it! I’m actually thinking about a little trip to Bermuda after going absolutely nowhere for five years. Mmmmmmmm. Bermuda.
Barbadoes is pretty cool, too.
In addition to what you are saying, I think people are buying larger ticket items before they are hit further by inflation.
Good point, and it’s also the preppers stocking up.
Inflation is killing us but it isn’t being reported:
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp