In The Big Picture, an interview With Richard Arvedlund, Founder, Cypress Capital Management, by Sandra Ward in Barron’s.

“Wal-Mart is my favorite economist. It is huge, reflects the low- to middle-income sector of the economy and it gives us monthly statistics. What has happened is a dramatic reduction in spending by low-end consumers. It is starting to impact not only Wal-Mart’s outlook but, we presume, quite a few other retailers. Wal-Mart’s reaction has been to become even more competitive, so I would suspect the retail-sales environment will be the next sector of the economy that we will start to hear less exciting news from.”