It’s that special time of the year, when economic forecasters begin worrying about how much Americans are going to spend on holiday shopping.

It’s become a holiday tradition, because depending on what sort of business a retailer is in, November and December can account for as much as 30 percent of annual sales. The overall U.S. retail economy is measured at $3.2 trillion, and the holidays account for about a fifth of it.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to increase 4.1 percent this year, but notes that shoppers can be expected to be “extremely price sensitive.” Reason: All that income inequality and wage stagnation stuff you’ve heard about. Holiday shopping is a place where theory becomes reality. If people don’t have money to spend, retailers suffer. If retailers suffer, the economy suffers.

Raising the minimum wage would put upward pressure on wages and better redistribute the post-2008 economic gains.

But Democrats haven’t been able to make that case, and too many Americans still haven’t figured out what’s happened to them. Merry Christmas.


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