Lux et Veritas

In 1859, the line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” made for a solid opening to Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. In 2025, it could have qualified him to be a financial columnist. We are living a tale of two countries. Yes, America has a massive GDP and a growing economy that is the envy of much of the world. And yes, the American economy is flat, stagnant, and a nightmare. For some it’s a fairy tale and for others it’s a scary tale, and the gulf between those two stories is getting wider. While some retailers that cater to lower income earners are closing stores and suffering soft sales numbers, purchases of lux travel and goods is growing steadily, driven by a minority of buyers with a majority of buying power. “Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation. The well-off are spending with abandon. The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets. Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending.” WSJ (Gift Article): The U.S. Economy Depends More Than Ever on Rich People.