Amazon sounds pretty worried about the economy for the rest of the year. And it's a bad sign for the rest of us.

• Amazon's finance chief said political events and the Olympics were distracting people from spending.
• While it sounds like an excuse, there might be some truth to his predictions for the rest of 2024.
• Fast-food chains' and alcohol companies' comments point to an ongoing squeeze for the US consumer.

It's safe to say the US has a lot going on right now.

There's so much going on that Amazon's chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, partially blamed a weaker-than-expected sales forecast for this quarter on the Olympics and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump .

"There's a lot of events that are occupying people's attention right now, from political conventions to the election itself to the Olympics," he said on Thursday.

"No matter what you're selling or providing, customers only have so much attention," Olsavsky said. "When high-profile things happen, or the assassination attempt a couple of weeks ago, you do see that people shift their attention to news, and so it's more about distractions."

While it might sound like the CFO version of the old "dog ate my homework" excuse, he could be onto something.

The news cycle is churning out stories of gold medals and keeping up with the campaign trail; we're still waiting to see who Kamala Harris selects as her vice-presidential candidate after Joe Biden's surprising move to drop out of the presidential race. Then there's the election itself — and, of course, a chance of more unprecedented news before November.

Meanwhile, consumers are suffering from a prolonged period of high prices and inflation that's changing spending habits.

Fast-food chains including McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell have added discounts to get customers to come back.

Starbucks' CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, said this week that visits had dropped amid "a challenging consumer environment."

Alcohol companies are suffering, too. Diageo, which sells brands including Don Julio, Smirnoff, and Johnnie Walker, reported its first fall in annual sales since 2020.

"We are in a very extraordinary consumer environment," CEO Debra Crew said, according to the Financial Times . "You do see persistent inflation that is really weighing on consumers and weighing on their wallets."

Other signs are pointing to a slowing economy. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the US added 114,000 jobs in July — far below expectations of 175,000. The unemployment rate also rose unexpectedly; that spooked investors, with all three major US stock indexes dropping significantly .

While the Olympics maybe aren't stopping everyone from adding items to their Amazon carts, Olsavsky may indeed have a point. So buckle up for the rest of 2024 — it might be a bumpy ride.