Marketplace Morning reports new Skin in the Game series explores what we can learn about

money and careers from the $300 billion video game industry.

Plus here how an Oakland-based program helps young people get the skills they need to break

into this booming industry.

Listen to Skin in the Game and more from the Marketplace Morning report wherever you get

your podcasts.

On the program today, a question, how are you feeling?

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.

From Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, I'm Rimechres and for Ky Rizdal, it is Monday,

August 14th, good to have you with us.

There is a thing, a thesis, if you will, that we say all the time on this show, and that

is consumer spending, which makes up about two-thirds of US GDP, it drives this economy.

So again, how are you feeling?

Because our willingness to keep on spending robustly despite inflation, despite soaring

interest rates, it is almost single-handedly keeping this economy out of a recession.

Tomorrow with July retail sales, we'll get a good sense if we consumers are still doing

our part.

Because on one hand, the New York Fed reports that US households feel their finances have

improved from a year ago.

But at the same time, we've got data that show Americans are racking up more and more

credit card debt.

Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman reports on the economic conundrum that is the US consumer.

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