Forget everything the mainstream media and economists are telling you about a recession… the U.S. economy is roaring.

To see this, however, you need to look outside the official data, which is so heavily gimmicked that it borders on fiction.

Instead, take a look at corporate sales.

While there are literally dozens of ways through which companies can boost their earnings, sales are all but impossible to fake. Either money came in the door or not. As such they’re a great read on the economy, particularly the power of the U.S. consumer which makes up 70% of GDP.

With that in mind, consider that the average Year over Year sales growth for a basket of economically sensitive companies shows growth is near 5%…not 2% or 3%… 5%.

Interestingly, the slowest was in Wal-Mart (WMT), while the highest sales growth was in consumer discretionary items like Amazon (AMZN) and Coke. Typically, we see sales growth rise dramatically at Wal-Mart when the economy slows as more and more consumers become price sensitive.