Consumer sentiment takes a tumble

Consumer spending fell in early August, according to preliminary results from the University of Michigan’s survey. July retail sales were down, and the average price of gas is nearing a record high for August. In today’s episode, we look at how consumers could be cutting discretionary spending as a result. Also, we’ll look at why China’s 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 today’s 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