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The US Department of Commerce reported a drop in retail sales for the month of July after two straight months of gains. The loss of one tenth of one percent in the rate of total sales surprised most economists. The expectation is that Americans, despite suffering from an all-time high unemployment rate, will continue to purchase products at growing rates. Consumer spending has fueled the American economy for decades. That consumption has in turn been fueled by an over-abundance of of cheap goods, manufactured in countries like China, and made available on the seductively marked down shelves of discount stores and outlet malls. Americans are obsessed by bargains, and this culture of sales and discounts, it’s origins and impacts, are explored in a new book by Ellen Ruppel-Shell, co-director of the Graduate Program in Science Journalism at Boston University, contributing editor and correspondent for The Atlantic. Her book is called Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. In it she says, “Cheap fuel, cheap loans, cheap consumer goods do not pave the road to salvation. On the contrary, our Faustian pact with bargains led to the worst recession of two generations.”

GUEST: Ellen Ruppel-Shell, co-director of the Graduate Program in Science Journalism at Boston University, contributing editor and correspondent for The Atlantic, author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture

For more information, visit www.ellenruppelshell.com.