Ketchup or Sequestration?

February 27th, 2013

One stream of the analysis of the January retail numbers focused concretely on the impact that the reinstatement of the payroll tax had on the paychecks of more than 160 million U.S. workers and therefore on their spending habits. At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31 the temporary rolling grand bargain on the fiscal cliff immediately brought lower paychecks to many households. For workers earning $50,000 in annual salary, that means $80 a month slashed from take-home pay, a bag of groceries weekly.