When it comes to exposing the disturbing, some say desperate, propaganda wave sweeping the nation, nothing has quite captured the unprecedented decoupling between policy-accepted “confidence indicators” such as the Conference Board, which in August printed at its 2015 highs and those which actually poll people such as Gallup, whose economic outlook indicator collapsed to the lowest level in one year.

Which, considering the general state of the economy, begs the question: has Gallup now officially become the one poll-based indicator that has not been tainted by “policy-supervision”?

We don’t know the answer, but we do know that if Gallup indeed provides an accurate representation of the US economy, then August retail spending – that most important driver of the US economy, more important even than the backward looking GDP print – is set to come crashing down with a bang. The reason: according to the latest Gallup report on US consumer spending, in which a random sample of 15,724 adults were interviewed by phone, Americans’ self-reported daily spending averaged just $89 in August, down not only from August in 2014 and 2013…

… but the fourth month in a row of year-over-year spending declines, as well as was also the lowest monthly spend since March of 2015.

And this time there are no “scapegoats” to blame the spending slowdown on: the weather in August was uniformly gorgeous around the US.

A quick reminder what Gallup foes actually measure:

Gallup’s daily spending measure asks Americans to estimate the total amount they spent “yesterday” in restaurants, gas stations, stores or online — not counting home, vehicle or other major purchases, or normal monthly bills — to provide an indication of Americans’ discretionary spending. The average for August 2015 is based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews with more than 15,000 U.S. adults.