190 Car purchases and rising gasoline prices played a part in the surprisingly strong November retail-sales increase. Yet most other merchants had good gains, too. Consumer spending makes up a large part of the economy. Data this week showed the net worth of Americans is rising, as people make some headway in their crawl out of the hole that the financial crisis put them in. The Federal Reserve on Thursday reported total net worth of households increased 5 percent in the July-to-September period, to $53.42 trillion from $50.76 trillion in the second quarter.
Villanova School of Business 2009 Media Report