jackie: welcome to fox news live. i m jackie ibanez in new york. all eyes on the capitol where the january 6 hearings resume this week. they may subpoena former vice president mike pence. they hope to question justice clarence thomas wife over her efforts to overturn the 2020 election. meanwhile the u.s. economy may be slowing down, but the white house believes the recession is not inevitable. janet yellen says overall consumer spending remains strong despite unstable spending patterns. gas continues to rise.
in fact, a new study shows that it is down 40% from last year. this is the number that shows how americans feel about the economy in general. it is not very good. it also is used as a barometer to say what spending patterns look like and what this means for the economy going forward, alex. listening to those interviews, insane, dread, strangling, those are the words used how motorists feel going to get station. is there any room for patience here or are folks completely fed up with this? well, you know, the timing of it is terrible. it we are at the beginning of summer. a lot of people are preparing to take summer vacations, summer trips. now when you look at the alternative, airfare is also higher. this is another thing that is hit hard by inflation. when you combine the timing of this, but also look at the fact that after two years of very strong lockdowns, a lot of people, if they re able to, are still going on those trips. experts say, now they are
US shoppers have cut spending on home goods like kitchen appliances and TVs, leaving retailers like Target with excess inventory they can't sell and don't have room to store.
that this is the solution for inflation. when we do have a recession, which sometimes happens with inflation, this is exactly what happens. fueled by less because they re less concerned about money. they bring prices down. demand goes down. people cannot buy less staples. they cannot buy less food, they cannot buy less gasoline if they need to get to work. on the other hand, americans are willing to pay higher progressive. i m irony americans to save a lot of money by a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck. this is hurting them. you have another class of americans that saved a lot of money during the pandemic. look at travel. your first 30%. people are paying. people do not care that they are up 30%. they are paying because they want to travel. this is after being stuck at home for two years. we are in a weird spot in the economy right now where we are not back to normal but people want to get back to normal. we still have distorted spending patterns in the economy.