Good morning. The two big dollar store chains reported this week, and they are doing well. “Higher income households are trading into Dollar Tree, lower-income households are depending on us more than ever,” the company’s chief executive said. Dollar Tree’s shares, and those of rival Dollar General, are both up more than 50 per cent this year. Does the success of these deep discounters reflect a rapidly weakening economy? Read on. And send your comments: unhedged@ft.com.

The US slowdown (and how it ends)

The US economy, it seems safe to say, has weakened in the fourth quarter. The best indicator of this, in the absence of timely official data, is the private jobs data. Jobs growth had been declining all year, but according to the private data collectors ADP and Revelio, it has gone into reverse in the past few months.