The data in hand indicate that, the slowdown in housing notwithstanding, inflation-adjusted outlays for personal consumption increased in the third quarter at about the average rate seen since the current economic expansion began in late 2001. The latest retail sales figures suggest an increase in consumption at roughly that pace in the current quarter as well.
The historian Frances Yates comments that “The Divine Comedy” can be interpreted as a work embodying the contemporary adaptation of the classical “Art of Memory”.