The U.S. consumer, the backbone of this economy, has been showing increasing strain over the last two years. The latest figures from the Commerce Department released this week showed retails sales barely grew in May. Here’s a summary from Bloomberg: The value of retail purchases, unadjusted for inflation, increased 0.1% after an downwardly revised 0.2% drop in the prior month, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday. Excluding gasoline, sales rose 0.3%. The figures underscore a notable downshift in consumer ...