IF YOU WONDERED WHEN THE US ECONOMY WOULD START THE CONTRACTION, PERHAPS THIS IS AN INDICATOR - REPRINT

Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin
Consumer confidence in early May tumbled due to higher inflation--the highest expected year-ahead inflation rate as well as the highest long term inflation rate in the past decade. Rising inflation also meant that real income expectations were the weakest in five years. 

It starts with animal spirits - are people confident and therefore spend or not?