Economics
Three Vices Giving the U.S. Economy a Boost
Coffee and cigarettes are so last year
A craps table in the Isle of Capri casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, Thursday, August 10, 2006.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Sometimes it just feels good to be bad. After years of recession-imposed restraint, American consumers have more cash in their pockets, and some of it is going to our favorite guilty pleasures.
Real consumer spending climbed 3.4 percent in the year ending in January, the most since 2006. Here are the vices that won over our black hearts and hard-earned dollars.