I would argue that we are seeing the economic effects of the covid pandemic, which took a few years to accumulate, thanks to Joe Biden shoring up the economy when we needed it. Then Trump yanked the rug out from under everything. It will probably tumble pretty fast now.
First, the hospitality and healthcare sectors were incredibly stressed during the pandemic. If not for Biden's assistance, I imagine most restaurants would have failed. Now that Mister has cut off the Latino workforce and exacerbated rising food costs through farming and trade policies, restaurants are on their way out. Look how many successful chains have closed recently. Adding to that the well-meaning but detrimental increase in restaurant minimum wages in many states, the only way restaurants can profit is by charging the top of what the market will bear. When I eat out, I see mostly old white people who can still afford to. And we won't be able to much longer. I don't even need to chronicle the woes of the healthcare industry. When Americans are suddenly paying so much more for insurance of all kinds, thanks to Trump, discretionary spending will grind to a halt.
None of this counts the variables that will further weigh on the economy if the Loser gets us into a hot war or other countries unite and revolt against the tariffs, which we will continue to pay for. The broken middle class is out of options and will soon be out of cash. Should we even begin to talk about home foreclosures... again? Terrified is right, Mr. Nesbit.
KKG, I agree with you on everything except the restaurant wages being paid. Those people are already being paid lower wages and now they are also getting lower tips. It's really a vicious circle, with no winners, only losers. All but the newfangled oligarchs, who are really nothing but the robber barons of yore.
You’re right, but the wage increase did decrease the number of diners, according to my anecdotal evidence. And I’m seeing restaurants close—more than normal? The industry model has never been sustainable for someone. It’s like a three-legged stool: either the owner, the employees, or the customer suffers.
Yes, Winter is Coming, ICE will be forming on streets from border to border and no amount of salt will melt the MAGA-stranglehold on our America...until, of course, the stock market crashes.
Thank you for this wonderful post. For me its the bottom line that's important - that these latest economic reports show that there has been an alarming downward shift in Americans sense of well being together with anxiety that the future will be as bad or even worse.
My guess is that there is a myriad of reasons why any one person is anxious but the fact that a majority of Americans are anxious suggests that the problem is much bigger than the price of eggs.
Medical insurance costs and medical costs are through the roof. MAGA is forcing more people off Medicaid and subsidies for ACA policies are gone. That is enough to make people nervous, aside from consumer prices.
This is one of those painfully ironic moments in history when the cure for the disease affecting the body politic/economic is going to be as painful and harmful as the disease itself. A full scale economic collapse is the only near term event that I see that could bring down the MAGAt juggernaut fast enough to save democracy in this country, and perhaps beyond. But the consequences of such a collapse will be devastating for all but the top 5% or so, and the long term results of that collapse are far from clear. To save our country, I fear American's will have to learn anew (and in the younger generations) what real grit in the face of deep crisis and uncertainty are all about. My parents generation learned that lesson during the depression as kids and in WWII as adults. They had no certainties about the outcome of either. We look back on it today with a false confidence that the forces of democracy were going to win, forgetting that it was our federal government that intervened to avert the depression, and our advantage in manufacturing and logistics that swung the WWII in our favor. We no longer have that critical advantage, China does. Are there still enough Americans willing to stand up to peacefully but firmly oppose this authoritarian regime, or will we all collapse into serf-hood in a 21st century oligopolistic, corporate version of feudalism? Chemo-therapy for even cancers caught early is extraordinarily difficult to endure, I know from experience - both my own and family members. The outcome is never visible when the treatment begins, and long term success is never guaranteed. I pray the American people still have it within them to stand up for what has actually really made the USA exceptional and worthy of emulation for all my life up until 2016.
Groceries, housing, and healthcare have all been rising at a rapid rate for quite some time. There is no mystical reason for the absence of optimism. The wealth of the nation is, at an accelerating rate, going into the hands of just a few people.
Jeff makes an excellent argument. But the people in power, corporations and especially the tech billionaire class don't seem to either be listen or really care. So how do we get their attention? For the tech class and corporations, the only thing that gets their attention is money. This is how we, the everyday people get their attention. Resist and Unsubscribe.
The site is found here. https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/ This is an organized, sane way for the average person to apply the only pressure that Corporate America understands, money. Simply unsubscribe from as many of the listed services as you can. Does not matter on how many you can unsubscribe from, just one is great. Each of us have are own circumstances, do what you/ your household can do. The key is duration. It needs to be a minimum of a month. Hope you will check it out, act and share widely.
FYI: Don't think this kind of pressure campaign doesn't work? The most recent example of how well this works is when ABC cancelled Kimmel, million of subscribers cancel Hulu. All of a sudden Kimmel is back on the air.
The drop in consumer confidence comes from the realization that the people at the top of our government do not care one little bit about making it better for us. We are not their customer, as we should be; we are the enemy. If Trump wants to fire the Fed governors, set the interest rates artificially low, and blow up the economy, he will call it a good thing because it's his idea. Confidence? No, we are scared to death.
Has confidence collapsed because the American people are increasingly noticing that their government neither cares about them nor intends to do anything for their benefit.
Harry Truman had a great quote about the difference between a recession and a depression:
When your neighbors lose their jobs it's a recession. When you lose your job it's a depression!
That said, the average American isn't very bright. The average person isn't that interested in politics and doesn't understand economics worth a damn. But two things Joe and Josephine Sixpack understand very well are when their job's at stake, and when prices have risen to the point where breaking even between paychecks is just not happening. And (as George H W Bush learned the hard way in 1992) no politician telling them happy talk about how well Wall Street is doing, or that things aren't bad in general is going to change their minds. In fact that sort of happy talk convinces the average person that the politician is either a damned liar or hopelessly out of touch.
I would argue that we are seeing the economic effects of the covid pandemic, which took a few years to accumulate, thanks to Joe Biden shoring up the economy when we needed it. Then Trump yanked the rug out from under everything. It will probably tumble pretty fast now.
First, the hospitality and healthcare sectors were incredibly stressed during the pandemic. If not for Biden's assistance, I imagine most restaurants would have failed. Now that Mister has cut off the Latino workforce and exacerbated rising food costs through farming and trade policies, restaurants are on their way out. Look how many successful chains have closed recently. Adding to that the well-meaning but detrimental increase in restaurant minimum wages in many states, the only way restaurants can profit is by charging the top of what the market will bear. When I eat out, I see mostly old white people who can still afford to. And we won't be able to much longer. I don't even need to chronicle the woes of the healthcare industry. When Americans are suddenly paying so much more for insurance of all kinds, thanks to Trump, discretionary spending will grind to a halt.
None of this counts the variables that will further weigh on the economy if the Loser gets us into a hot war or other countries unite and revolt against the tariffs, which we will continue to pay for. The broken middle class is out of options and will soon be out of cash. Should we even begin to talk about home foreclosures... again? Terrified is right, Mr. Nesbit.
KKG, I agree with you on everything except the restaurant wages being paid. Those people are already being paid lower wages and now they are also getting lower tips. It's really a vicious circle, with no winners, only losers. All but the newfangled oligarchs, who are really nothing but the robber barons of yore.
You’re right, but the wage increase did decrease the number of diners, according to my anecdotal evidence. And I’m seeing restaurants close—more than normal? The industry model has never been sustainable for someone. It’s like a three-legged stool: either the owner, the employees, or the customer suffers.
But the stock market is up, so the oligarchs are okay. That's what matters, right? /s
Yes, Winter is Coming, ICE will be forming on streets from border to border and no amount of salt will melt the MAGA-stranglehold on our America...until, of course, the stock market crashes.
Thank you for this wonderful post. For me its the bottom line that's important - that these latest economic reports show that there has been an alarming downward shift in Americans sense of well being together with anxiety that the future will be as bad or even worse.
My guess is that there is a myriad of reasons why any one person is anxious but the fact that a majority of Americans are anxious suggests that the problem is much bigger than the price of eggs.
Medical insurance costs and medical costs are through the roof. MAGA is forcing more people off Medicaid and subsidies for ACA policies are gone. That is enough to make people nervous, aside from consumer prices.
It's criminal. ACA had solved a big problem. Then he unfixed it.
This is one of those painfully ironic moments in history when the cure for the disease affecting the body politic/economic is going to be as painful and harmful as the disease itself. A full scale economic collapse is the only near term event that I see that could bring down the MAGAt juggernaut fast enough to save democracy in this country, and perhaps beyond. But the consequences of such a collapse will be devastating for all but the top 5% or so, and the long term results of that collapse are far from clear. To save our country, I fear American's will have to learn anew (and in the younger generations) what real grit in the face of deep crisis and uncertainty are all about. My parents generation learned that lesson during the depression as kids and in WWII as adults. They had no certainties about the outcome of either. We look back on it today with a false confidence that the forces of democracy were going to win, forgetting that it was our federal government that intervened to avert the depression, and our advantage in manufacturing and logistics that swung the WWII in our favor. We no longer have that critical advantage, China does. Are there still enough Americans willing to stand up to peacefully but firmly oppose this authoritarian regime, or will we all collapse into serf-hood in a 21st century oligopolistic, corporate version of feudalism? Chemo-therapy for even cancers caught early is extraordinarily difficult to endure, I know from experience - both my own and family members. The outcome is never visible when the treatment begins, and long term success is never guaranteed. I pray the American people still have it within them to stand up for what has actually really made the USA exceptional and worthy of emulation for all my life up until 2016.
This is what I've been saying but not as well or fully. Thank you Dave.
Groceries, housing, and healthcare have all been rising at a rapid rate for quite some time. There is no mystical reason for the absence of optimism. The wealth of the nation is, at an accelerating rate, going into the hands of just a few people.
Jeff makes an excellent argument. But the people in power, corporations and especially the tech billionaire class don't seem to either be listen or really care. So how do we get their attention? For the tech class and corporations, the only thing that gets their attention is money. This is how we, the everyday people get their attention. Resist and Unsubscribe.
The site is found here. https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/ This is an organized, sane way for the average person to apply the only pressure that Corporate America understands, money. Simply unsubscribe from as many of the listed services as you can. Does not matter on how many you can unsubscribe from, just one is great. Each of us have are own circumstances, do what you/ your household can do. The key is duration. It needs to be a minimum of a month. Hope you will check it out, act and share widely.
FYI: Don't think this kind of pressure campaign doesn't work? The most recent example of how well this works is when ABC cancelled Kimmel, million of subscribers cancel Hulu. All of a sudden Kimmel is back on the air.
Scott Galloway, who is behind this plan-of-action, explains his reasoning in greater detail in this podcast, Pivot (his co-host is Kara Swisher). Take a listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pivot/id1073226719?i=1000747336642
The drop in consumer confidence comes from the realization that the people at the top of our government do not care one little bit about making it better for us. We are not their customer, as we should be; we are the enemy. If Trump wants to fire the Fed governors, set the interest rates artificially low, and blow up the economy, he will call it a good thing because it's his idea. Confidence? No, we are scared to death.
Has confidence collapsed because the American people are increasingly noticing that their government neither cares about them nor intends to do anything for their benefit.
Harry Truman had a great quote about the difference between a recession and a depression:
When your neighbors lose their jobs it's a recession. When you lose your job it's a depression!
That said, the average American isn't very bright. The average person isn't that interested in politics and doesn't understand economics worth a damn. But two things Joe and Josephine Sixpack understand very well are when their job's at stake, and when prices have risen to the point where breaking even between paychecks is just not happening. And (as George H W Bush learned the hard way in 1992) no politician telling them happy talk about how well Wall Street is doing, or that things aren't bad in general is going to change their minds. In fact that sort of happy talk convinces the average person that the politician is either a damned liar or hopelessly out of touch.