For much of last year, the Goldilocks crowd was proclaiming the health and resilience of the American consumer. Every chance to hype retail sales was taken, even a few months ago before the holiday shopping season. They had to do that because when times were good they often reminded us that we wouldn’t have a recession because the consumer was strong and after all, the consumer is two-thirds of the American economy. Now, many of the same bulls are cheering the “emergency” fiscal stimulus plan to give “much needed help” to the American consumer. How did “two-thirds of the economy” get so weak without any of those brainiacs noticing?