Consumer sentiment slides to second-lowest on record as inflation expectations jump after tariffs
... Recent inflation data has not shown a tariff bump, as both the consumer price index and producer price index for April came in below consensus estimates. ...
Who gives a damn about whether the consensus estimates got it right or not? What matters is what the damn rates are!
And the rates are much higher when compared with the immediate pre-pandemic rates.
Would those have come down in recent months without the spectre of a Trump tariff regime looming in the wings?
Well we'll never know, now will we?
It's all so infuriatingly stupid.
Meanwhile consumer sentiment and surveys of same don't hold much water with me.I conclude only one thing from them: that our tolerance for inflation has weakened dramatically. We were a much hardier people in the past, and now we are soft and melt like snowflakes at the slightest hint of bad news.
In November 1974 cpi inflation peaked at 12.2% year over year. The then Michigan survey of consumer sentiment plunged to 57.6 by February 1975.
But in April 2025 cpi inflation is only 2.3% year over year, and the Michigan survey has dropped to 50.8 from 52.2 in April.
It's comic.
