More Americans are quitting their jobs… …and US employers are having a harder time filling their new positions. Americans are richer (on paper) than they’ve ever been. Still, US retail sales fell for the third month in a row. House prices in longsuffering Spain are finally showing some signs of life. Ireland’s GDP has been slowing down despite a great year (while its GNP does the opposite). Chinese disinflation paused, but industrial deflation continued uninterrupted. The Mexican peso hit a record low against the US dollar. US commercial crude oil stockpiles hit another record high.