Right? Taking into account that the US Dollar Index has fallen some 6 % during the last twelve months, and using that for correction, this year's number aligns pretty well with last year's. CPI is however only 3% up. Another interesting question is: Who is actually spending? As far as I've gathered, the upper classes are responsible for an increasing chunk of American spending. Meaning that "spending" increasingly means that money is mostly shuffled around amongst those that have a lot of it.