American consumer sentiment falls to new decade-long low as inflation fears soar

38 Comments

A recent survey by the University of Michigan found that American consumer sentiment fell to a new decade-long low as concerns about inflation grow.

Inflation

Danielle Wallace for FOX Business:

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (MCSI), a monthly survey of how consumers feel about the economy, personal finances, business conditions, and buying conditions, ended March 2022 at 59.4%, representing a 5.4% decline from the final reading of 62.8% in February 2022 and a 30.0% decline from the index’ reading of 84.9% one year ago in March 2021.

The end of March reading of 59.4% is down by .5% from what was already a decade-long low of 59.7 recorded in mid-March.

The survey found that inflation has been the primary cause of rising pessimism, with an expected year-ahead inflation rate at 5.4%, the highest since November 1981.

The chief economist for the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers, Richard Curtin, said… 32% of all consumers expected their overall financial position to worsen in the year ahead, the highest recorded level since the surveys started in the mid-1940s.” He further assessed that “the prevention of inflationary psychology is much less costly before it becomes ingrained in the economic behavior of consumers and firms.”

According to Investopedia, many consumers worried that the Federal Reserve failed to adequately act on chances to nip inflation in the bud at its earlier stages. The MCSI assessed in mid-January that respondents’ confidence in government policies declined to its lowest level since 2014.

MacDailyNews Take: Sigh.

As we wrote last Ma: ‘Tis best to get a handle on inflation, if you know how, while you still can.

Inflation is repudiation. — Calvin Coolidge

When a business or an individual spends more than it makes, it goes bankrupt. When government does it, it sends you the bill. And when government does it for 40 years, the bill comes in two ways: higher taxes and inflation. Make no mistake about it, inflation is a tax and not by accident. — Ronald Reagan

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38 Comments

  1. It seems that the stolen 2020 U.S. Presidential election has consequences.

    But, hey, no mean tweets!

    New Peer-Reviewed Research Finds Significant Evidence of 2020 Voter Fraud – March 28, 2022

    Peer-reviewed study finds 255,000-368,000 excess votes for Joe Biden in six swing states in 2020 presidential election.

    Biden “beat” Trump in
    • AZ by 10,457 “votes”
    • GA by 11,779
    • WI by 20,608

    42,844 votes swung the election from Trump – which China* / the corrupt establishment couldn’t have for 4 more years – to Biden-Harris who are provably corrupt globalist puppets.

    *China so couldn’t have Trump for another four years, they unleashed a contagious virus willingly, or if it was an accident, covered it up for long enough so that it would spread and wreak havoc on the world economy and, importantly, the U.S. with Trump clearly cruising to reelection.

    To China, killing 1.29 million and counting of their own and worldwide is meaningless as long as it furthers the interests of China.

    Reply

        2. Time to finally open your eyes and try to coax some cognition from your limited faculties.

          The black hole of depravity known as Hunter Biden’s Laptop dilates ever wider as the rickety “Joe Biden” regime chugs towards its event horizon of disgrace and collapse, throwing off the jetsam of our nation’s remnant honor in its toxic vapor trail. The memos and emails on the device could not be clearer: “Joe Biden” and his grifting family sold out their country.

          — James Howard Kunstler, March 28, 2022

          Full article: What Is to Be Done? Money money money everywhere along the trail for the Biden Family

    2. The consequences of the last election are that losers like you can’t provide any evidence of fraud serious enough to overturn the results. END OF STORY.

      Find something useful to do with your life. Consider writing Mac software instead of spreading orange manure.

      Reply

      1. What you meant to say was that libturd stupidity never stops.

        Biden Chose Harris as his first VP because on the color of her skin and sex – not qualifications. Libturds were fine with that.

        She is a disaster and Libturds are fine with that.

        Biden has stated that he chose the Supreme Court nominee also based on the color of her skin and sex – not qualifications. Libturds were fine with that.

        That’s not just stupid, that’s libturd stupid.

        FYI – Biden blocked the first Black woman from the Supreme Court.

        As a senator, Biden warned President George W. Bush that if he nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, he would filibuster and kill her nomination.

        Joe Biden has been in Congress for 40+ years and over time has created, implemented, supported and upheld racist and white supremacist laws, polices and regulations that have negatively impacted the black community, including supporting segregation and mass incarceration.

        In 1975 Biden wrote and sponsored a bill with open segregationists and white supremacist, that would limit the power of courts to order school desegregation with busing and barred the federal government from withholding funding from schools that remained effectively segregated.

        And Libturds are gullible and stupid enough to call Republicans racists instead of Biden and other demonrats.

        Recap of Women’s History Month:
        -A biological male is winning in women’s swim competitions
        -A biological male is being named “Women of the Year”
        -The Supreme Court’s 1st black woman nominee is unable to define “woman.”
        – Bioligical males are allowed in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.

        Libturds were fine with all that!!!

        And libturds think they are the smart ones!!!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOL

        Is it really so hard to see why Americans despise libturds?

        Reply

        1. Given 2 choices by the corrupt political parties, Americans decisively chose the lesser evil one. By a landslide. Proven by election officials and proven in courts. You can stop sucking the shriveled weenie of the sore loser now Hal. Just because you and your boss are bitter losers doesn’t mean everyone loves every thing about Biden, or that they are democrats, or that they are liberal. Millions of conservatives who are disgusted with the lies and incompetence from Trump voted him out. Actual patriots, as opposed to selfish blowholes like you, will honor the office and do everything possible to support the current president when he makes good decisions, and call him out if he doesn’t. You can only whine bitterly about the unchangeable past, so sad. So far Biden’s lied to the American people about 0.000000000001% as much as your incompetent 76 year old immature idiot, but you knew that.

      1. Was your mother on drugs during her pregnancy with you? Dropped on your head a a child? Just trying to figure out if you were born this stupid or it was caused by drugs and alcohol.

        Reply

    1. For someone who claims to speak truth, all you’ve provided here is easily disproved opinions. The president has accomplished no less than the prior administration by this stage of the term. This is quite an accomplishment considering all that needed to be repaired, and the first year or so od any administration is characterized mainly as a continuation of the prior administration’s trends. No wonder deficits are high, trade is down, and despots around the world thought the democracies of the world were too distracted to take action against unprovoked warmongering. They were wrong and Biden is rallying the allies on the right side of history. This is something the prior administration could have done but refused to do: work with allies to oppose dictators.

      Reply

        1. You just don’t know when to quit, do you?

          Oil is a global commodity. This is the recent history production/consumption history:

          The industry has been playing production catch-up since the COVID recovery began. It has nothing to do with US politics. Now with Russian oil & natgas off the table, it’ll be months or years before you get historically cheap fossil fuels again. It’s not political (unless you support Putin!). It’s good the western democracies are willing to turn off Putin’s allowance.

          No US president has controls over pricing, production, or demand. The most a POTUS can do is encourage producers and consumers from the bully pulpit, and provide short-term price buffers by altering federal oil consumption (via the SOR). The current administration, like every one before, has done that. Federal energy policy hasn’t suddenly changed like you pretend it has. Moreover, a blatant mistake on your chart above: Biden took office on January 20, 2021. As people started traveling again, pent up demand for oil outpaced supply for months before he stepped in. If you have a bone to pick, complain about price gouging by your local gasoline retailers, famous for using any excuse to screw consumers.

          Contrary to popular opinion, you can’t turn an oil well and a refinery off and on like a light switch. The oil industry had to slash production when demand dropped during the COVID epidemic. Throughout 2021 and so far this year, domestic oil producers have been ramping up production.

          Note that the above chart is only domestic production. With the momentary exception of the COVID peak when demand dropped below domestic production, the USA for a long time has imported more oil. The USA is dependent on places like Saudi Arabia because their oil is cleaner and cheaper than the shale oil or deep water oil that is left in the USA. That doesn’t change with federal executive administration. Unless you like the POTUS cowtowing to mideast oil sheiks, OPEC oil is going to cost whatever they choose to set it. Federal policies haven’t meaningfully changed to cause the recent volatility of fossil fuels, and frankly all global commodity prices. Trade disruptions, COVID, and Putin’s war have dominant impact and will continue to do so for many months. It wouldn’t have been any different no matter who sits at the top of the executive branch. PLEASE drop the partisanship, it’s doing nobody any favors. You attempt to assign blame in a blatantly inappropriate manner.

          If the USA wants to become energy independent, you will have to invest in the infrastructure to make it happen. That won’t be more gasoline stations, because the USA doesn’t have cheap oil in the ground anymore. As most people know, electrification has to happen to have energy security. You should be advocating more efficient infrastructure, vehicles, and renewable energies. Those would boost domestic work and provide a long sustained economic payback. It’s on Congress to pass long overdue meaningful infrastructure investment bills. Complaining about gasoline prices and attempting to be partisan accomplishes nothing. The optimist would thank Putin for finally prodding the world to stop wasting gasoline and start building clean sustainable domestic infrastructure.

        1. Remember when your first grade teacher told you the there is no such thing as a wrong opinion?

          She/he/it lied. By definition, libturd opinions are just as stupid and wrong as the libturd speaking them

          Simply stated, nobody gives a fuck what libturds say

        3. You care Hal. You come here with your blood boiling every day as if a “libturd” murdered your new kitten. You have BDS. You’re irritable bowels have infected what little brain you had. Seek help.

  7. From a recent Prague, Czech Republic, newspaper:

    “The danger to America is not Joe Biden, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of a Biden presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Biden, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Biden, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.”

    Reply

    1. Troll, isn’t freedom of speech wonderful? You can express your stupidity as much as you like. If your anonymous quote with no publisher or author, translated from some second rate rag in a shithole country (your hero’s words) wants to criticize the US President, good for this anonymous idiot. Opinion noted and rejected.

      Meanwhile in the USA, the economy keeps improving despite global turbulence. MDN can’t post gloom and doom about the stock market because it’s faring well. Jobless claims at record lows. Wage growth is outpacing trade-war exacerbated inflation. Record jobs growth in many areas. Allies of the USA working together to replace Russia as an energy supplier, a huge boon to all US energy providers. US military contractors giddy, shipping arms to Ukraine and European allies. Trade snarls for commodities including oil being worked out. Historic anti-lynching bill passed. Competent new Justice to be approved and sworn in with bipartisan support. Lots of complex issues and no nation in the world is doing better right now.

      Whatever executive stuff you think needs to be done in addition to the above, let’s hear it. Pathetic attacks on the US President, that is birdcage liner.

      Reply

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