Consumer sentiment takes a tumble

Segments From This Episode

• Is the consumer engine of the economy starting to slow down?

  by Mitchell Hartman

  

  Consumer sentiment tumbled in early August, according to the University of Michigan survey. July retail sales were down more than half a percent from June, and AAA reports the nationwide average gas price neared a record high for August.

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• Is China's economy in trouble?

  by Sabri Ben-Achour

  

  China’s consumers are spending less. A slowdown could be on the horizon.

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• Why we still use GDP to measure economic growth

  by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry

  

  “It leaves some things out, but it is a very good gauge of the health of an economy,” said Allison Schrager, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and columnist at Bloomberg Opinion.

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• Getting weird mail? In Colorado, it could be business fraud

  by Leigh Paterson

  

  Have you ever gotten mail addressed to a strange business, instead of to you? Thousands of Colorado residents have reported their addresses are being used to register fake companies.

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• The Numbers

  by Kai Ryssdal

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• Popular online forum Reddit is joining the S&P 500

  by Samantha Fields

  

  The so-called “front page of the Internet” started with a $100,000 investment two decades ago, and is now worth more than $30 billion.

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• War boosts U.S. plastics after prolonged industry downturn

  by Elizabeth Trovall

  

  A glut of polyethylene had squeezed U.S. producers for years. But the war in the Middle East disrupted the global plastics market, sending prices higher and improving margins for producers along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

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