Subject: Re: Articles on the quarterly results
I am not sure which part of the economy is slowing.

It seems to be hollowing out from the bottom up. Poor people are already hurting. Rich people aren't. The middle is gradually moving from OK to hurting.

One simple narrative: consumers had a big pile of cash left over from the pandemic, both stimulus cheques and unspent entertainment/travel budgets.
Overall US consumer spending has held up well as that cash gets spent.
The poorest use it up fastest. The aggregate may still be big, but the amount still in the hands of those with a high propensity to spend it is running out.
This effect is amplified by home ownership and the wealth effect in the US: house prices are holding up oddly well, for now, an odd hangover from the free money years. The rise in interest rates is going to take a long time to filter through to the average homeowner, but inevitably it will. Some people will have to move, and their new mortgages won't be cheap.

It's not quite that simple, though, since the same effect is happening in a number of economies where the interst rates are already biting and the stimulus effect is long over. The main difference is that it's hitting the middle earners sooner.
A lot of "aspirational luxury" companies are seeing sales falling rapidly, while the true luxury goods are holding up fine, like Hermes.

Jim