After reading a Commerce Department survey of 35,000 stores, which showed that retail sales for June soared to a record $16.6 billion, some 4% better than the June peak in 1955, a Commerce Department economist said: "The U.S. consumer is not afraid of anything."
The consumer is obviously not worrying about a slump. With more employment and fatter paychecks, consumers from coast to coast had money enough to pay off installment loans on what they had bought in 1955—and then buy still more. The sales increases were not all spectacular. Nor were they evident in every line or city. But...
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