Here we go....What is MARTS? Its the "retail sales" report and it shows very clearly that consumers are being hammered by high energy costs -- specifically, gasoline.What's also quite interesting is that the impact is extremely broad; non-store (e.g. online) retailers have had an extraordinary and basically unbroken increase taking from conventional retail for a very long time. This month they were down. Not a lot, but down is down and a change from the last decade+ pattern.The exception is building materials (includes lawn and garden) which were modestly up and should be given the time of year.Everybody.......(Click link to read more)