{"id":588795,"date":"2026-08-18T21:26:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/588795\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T21:26:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:26:56","slug":"us-consumption-shows-signs-of-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/588795\/","title":{"rendered":"US consumption shows signs of strain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US consumption has remained remarkably strong despite higher fuel prices sparked by the war in the Middle East, though signs of strain have started to emerge. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-16\/skyrocketing-beef-prices-finally-have-americans-reaching-their-spending-limit\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Beef sales fell<\/a> in the 13 weeks leading up to mid-July, with consumers cutting back on eating out or opting for cheaper proteins, Bloomberg reported. Goldman Sachs analysts expect consumer spending to grow just 1-1.5% in the second half of the year. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-14\/us-consumer-sentiment-declines-for-first-time-in-three-months\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Consumer sentiment fell<\/a> in August for the first time in months, data showed, as the intensifying US-Iran conflict stoked cost-of-living concerns for Americans, spelling trouble for the Trump administration ahead of November\u2019s midterms. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/66d3a2de-6591-443d-83b0-94f2224edbbf?syn-25a6b1a6=1\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">The reality is that inflation is just the most regressive tax that exists,<\/a>\u201d an expert told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e3d7c3b4188e2ad34b2f7bb9be4f059e02beaf91-2132x1736.png\"  alt=\"US average gas price per gallon\" width=\"740\" height=\"602\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"_imageEmbed_glfao_40 _fullContentArea_glfao_44\" style=\"max-width:100%;color:transparent\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US consumption has remained remarkably strong despite higher fuel prices sparked by the war in the Middle East,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-588795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}