Retail sales have missed expectations for four months in a row for the first time since Lehman and if you believe trends in all-cash industries are a good leading indicator for spending in the "real" economy, than you have to think that falling spending on what Vice Index creator Andrew Zatlin calls "the fun stuff" is bad news for an economy that's traditionally driven by the consumer (who, you're reminded, is buried under nonexistent wage growth at low paying jobs). 

What we did not mention is that there's still one area in the vice economy that's seeing robust gains: marijuana sales.