Consumer sentiment takes a tumble
Keeps playing with the screen off. The episode is played from Marketplaceβs own podcast host.
Consumer spending fell in early August, according to preliminary results from the University of Michiganβs survey. July retail sales were down, and the average price of gas is nearing a record high for August. In todayβs episode, we look at how consumers could be cutting discretionary spending as a result. Also, weβll look at why Chinaβs economy may be in trouble, the value of GDP as a statistic, fake business registrations in Colorado, Reddit joining the S&P 500, and the global plastics industry.
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Read the stories in todayβs episode:
- Is the consumer engine of the economy starting to slow down?
- Is China’s economy in trouble?
- Why we still use GDP to measure economic growth
- Getting weird mail? In Colorado, it could be business fraud
- Popular online forum Reddit is joining the S&P 500
- Middle East conflict raises U.S. plastic industry’s sinking ship
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