Five Twenties, Please

 
When all else fails blame the consumer.

That's the strategy of policy wonks, market gurus and other Keynesian trolls. NIRP, ZIRP, increased public spending and all those others kinds of economic deep burps didn't work, so what's left--the favorite whipping dog of all Keynesians, young and old: those dirty, rotten, stubborn, cheap consumers.

For any and all who can still afford one, there's no more room in the garage to stack imported Chinese junk, a huge blow to the ego of Keynesian worshipers. And now here comes more unpalatable economic fare. The history of American consumers is fraught with many passing things, drinking their liquor from old fruit jars, trolling around shopping malls in their blue suede shoes, but they almost never, ever drive past a fast food window.

We all know the ones, those folks in the UK who finally stepped up and voted for their freedom and liberty, the ones who decided to look after themselves and take personal responsibility for their own lives, every interventionist and centralist nightmare. In the U.S. it looks as if those chintzy crowd members are dorsiflexing their hands and pushing themselves away from the fast food tables, according to the WSJ.

Restaurant visit growth has completely stalled in the last three months, signaling that consumers, jittery over economic uncertainties, are retrenching. Visits to fast-food restaurants had been growing at a quarterly clip of 2% since September 2015, but haven't grown at all in March, April or May, according to as-yet-unpublished data from market research firm NPD Group Inc.

When fast-food growth comes to a halt, “that’s a red flag because it’s been an area of growth and it’s 80% of the industry,” NPD restaurant analyst Bonnie Riggs said.
Restaurants are among the first industries to benefit when consumers are feeling flush, but recent economic indicators may be giving people pause about dining out. Job growth slowed last month, and gas prices are starting to climb again. Now, with the U.K. planning to exit the European Union, analysts say any related turbulence in U.S. financial markets could exacerbate the pullback.

We don't know if fast food visits are important enough to make the dot-plot list of Fed Chair Janet Yellen, but it might be another thorn in the side of further interest rate hikes this year. Instead of the coming helicopter money drops, why burn up that expensive aviation fuel, passing it out at the fast food pick up window, Janet, might prove more effective.

"A couple of cheeseburgers, hold the onions and mayonnaise, some fries, a large coke and five twenties, please!"