that s got to be a bummer for shoppers, for consumers in general down the road. definitely. and we re seeing those prices certainly inflate, but we re seeing that cpi index come down as well. and it s definitely lower,ing came in about 7.1%. it s lower year-over-year than it was last year, 7.7. and month other month it s slowly decreasing. but what we also have to think about ooh, neil, is that the savings rate is slowing too. consumers aren t saving as much as they used to compared to what they were saving during the pandemic. so before we have reserve for those rainy days just in case, i think the consumer now is very worried that that reserve is now gone. one source of optimism though, the small businesses are very, very optimistic. i think they think that especially at the first part of the year according to the data catalyst institute, people are going to continue to spend. and i think because of that it s really the reach of the digital tools that they re using. so it s not jus
bill: olympic sponsors are taking a hit to the bottom line. nbc saw record low viewership at the opening ceremony over the weekend. consumers aren t buying the products branded with the olympic rings as they learn about china s human rights abuse stories. more from washington, d.c. what did you find out, gillian? some of america s biggest corporations who sponsored the ioc did so to tens of millions of dollars and banking that americans wouldn t pay attention to the chinese communist party human rights abuses including the genocide of the uyghurs. they were very wrong. on social media we pulled some of the negative reaction to the ad take a look. one user said i wouldn t be so proud of being the official time keeper of the slave labor olympics. i would have withdrawn my support in my company. not a good look, omega yeah. trying to decide between an
the future of work, we ve been thinking about this for a while, the frontal systpromise of a ne that will pick up people without specialized education. who is going to take responsibility for training and preparing that worker for their next job? at the end of the day, doesn t matter the industry you re talking about. you have to follow the money. the money is in the hands of consumers. consumers aren t going to a shopping mall or paying retail because they don t have to thanks to technology. you can t stop technology and globalization. zara has become one of the most powerful retailers in the world. the owner is not a design guy. he is a supply chain guy who is now one of the richest men in the world. six years ago, had you ever heard of zara? stephanie, one of the other trends out there has been a push toward higher minimum wages which, unfortunately, while some of us believe makes for a better country, for people to earn more money, this will only hasten the death blow for tradi
friendly content. you can see that happening as well. that s the positive. there are some challenging here as well. in just the last hour, routers is saying the clinton campaign raises some question. at the end of the day, regulators and lawmakers have to examine this deal. they have to make sure that consumers aren t hurt at all. that s the chief concern. does this in any way present a negative for consumers where you have two large companies coming together. there s a real risk here. the government has blocked other big deals before and on the lawmaker front, today, we had the members of the senate sub committee on anti-trust come out and we have a statement from them that says, you know, we ve carefully examined the consolidation and the cable and video con tent to ensure it does not harm consumers and