Did you know the video game industry is worth more than $300 billion dollars a year,

bigger than movies and music combined? Marketplace Morning Reports skin in the game series explores

what this booming industry can teach us about the economy and jobs, listen to skin in the game,

and more from Marketplace Morning Report, wherever you get your podcasts.

On the program today, a reminder that it's a global economy, we only live in it.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai, Rizdole. It is Monday,

today, August 7th. Good as always, to have you along.

Everybody, we begin today with a nod to the calendar, in fact, and by pointing out

that we are one day shy of seven months since China officially ended its zero COVID policy.

And, by pointing out that what a whole lot of people had been expecting to happen,

has not. Marketplace's Sabrina Shores starts us off with the why and why it matters.

When China's zero COVID policy was lifted earlier this year, a lot of economists and analysts assumed

the full might of the second largest economy in the world would be unleashed.

You'd have roughly five to six percent growth that that would be driven by a rebound in household

consumption based on savings that had been accumulated during the pandemic. Logan Wright is

a partner at Rodium Group. He says the comeback was expected to be so intense that it would add

to global demand for a lot of products and maybe contribute more to inflation here in the US

and elsewhere. None of those trends have materialized. There has been rebound, but it's been weaker

than expected. Wright says even below typical pre-pandemic levels, prices are flat or even

falling. Households aren't spending. The main reason he says is the property sector is in trouble.

The basic story is that supply in terms of new construction just ran well ahead of

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