Some financial commentators are calling the current retail conditions the "Great Retail Apocalypse". About a billion square feet of retail space is vacant in the US and major chains like Sears, Radio Shack and Staples are announcing store closures. JCPenney has been dying for years. It lost $586m during the second quarter of 2013 alone. It could be that up to half of all shopping malls in America may shut down within the next 15 to 20 years. Meanwhile the Chinese are hedging the dollar like crazy, buying physical gold in huge amounts. They imported a record 418 metric tons of gold in the first two months of this year. Why is this happening? One metric tells a great deal of the story: labor force participation continues to sit at a low not seen in 35 years and a staggering 70% of all consuming units (formerly known as Americans) are below the age of 55:
