This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchler. Here's John Batchler.

The American economy, the global economy right now, we have numbers for America and we like

to shop. Shoppers boost retail sales for four straight month. This is the Wall Street

Journal reporting. Consumers spent more in July on food, clothing, and online. I welcome

Elizabeth Peake, colonist at the Hill, commissate Fox News, much on Fox Business. Is this

a good thing? No, it's a fact. You can go to any small town in America and you'll see

people in restaurants, you'll see people in coffee shops, you'll see people with cars

driving around looking for something to do on the weekend. And during the week where

I do not much travel around, I'm told that online shopping on the basis of the Amazon

trucks that fly through my part of the countryside, a lot of shopping going on. Liz, is this

a good thing? Retail sales, a measure of spending its doors online and restaurants

rose as seasonally adjusted, 0.7% last month, according to the commerce department.

As if one, is that a good thing? Two, does the Federal Reserve think it's a good thing?

Good evening to you. Good evening, John. I think the Federal Reserve would like to see

a slowdown in the US economy. That's what they've been predicting. I don't mean necessarily

recession, though up until very recently they were predicting a recession, in fact. But

I think they'd like to see consumers begin to pull in their horns because only then,

I guess, according to the Fed, will you see price pressures come down even further?

Because yes, inflation has definitely improved. The numbers have gotten significantly better

down to 3% from 9% a year ago, but we're not quite at 2%. And that remains the target

for the Fed. So what does this big retail sales number tell you? It means that really,

I think it means that the leftover spending coming out of the COVID shutdowns continues

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