US Consumer Sentiment Plummets—Economy’s Tepid Joke Gets Worse

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US Consumer Sentiment Crashes to Second-Lowest Rating Ever: University of Michigan Survey

Survey Illustration

In the waning days of what once was called the “American Dream,” a survey conducted by those learned scholars at the University of Michigan reveals that the spirit of the common man wavers, dreading the future with scarcely concealed despair. Since the spring of 2024, the hope that once buoyed the hearts of many has diminished by a notable 26.5%. One might imagine that such a plunge warrants a hearty laugh, but alas, it is only the sigh of a nation on the brink of financial comedy.

According to the venerable and ever-accurate Surveys of Consumers, the sentiment index now stands at a mere 50.8—second only to the historic nadir of sixty-two years ago, when the earth itself seemed less inclined to believe in prosperity.

This low watermark—50 in June of 2022—has become a symbol of the times, established when the era of hope was still fresh in everyone’s memory. Since that time, from the November of 1952, Americans have watched their optimism slowly weather away, much like a summer snow.

Said Joanne Hsu, the somber director of these surveys,

“Consumer sentiment was essentially unchanged this month, inching down a scant 1.4 index points following four consecutive months of steep declines. Sentiment is now down almost 30% since January 2025. Slight increases in sentiment among some independents were offset, as if by some cosmic joke, by a 7% decline among Republicans.”

Adding to the gloomy tableau, the survey reports a 10% decline in how folks view their personal finances—perhaps a sign that economic prospects look bleaker than a Monday morning. People are bracing themselves for incomes that shrink faster than the hope in their hearts.

“Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers’ thinking about the economy,” the survey says, as if tariffs are the new gods of economic stability—an idea as laughable as expecting order from chaos.

And with President Trump’s tariff wars—a spectacle of tariffs and tensions—the survey finds that inflation expectations are on a bipartisan rollercoaster, defying even the most seasoned economists’ attempts at rational explanation. Truly, we are in the golden age of economic humor, where the punchline is the slow unraveling of the American way.

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2025-05-17 01:26