Looking at this Michigan University survey, it seems that people are generally not in a good mood. According to this poll consumer sentiments which basically refer to how people think about the economy and their personal financial circumstances touched its annual low point.
It’s bad news.
I mean, who can blame them? When cost of living continues going up, it is expected that morale should drop some bit. Inflation is high on the list of what worries many people as per the report; which is an increase in prices for things like food and gas.
Its not just now but also later, where questions concerning what will happen next are being asked by individuals. They believe things like joblessness and interest rates could keep worsening.
One very clear thing to me was how much more people expect prices to rise even further. The survey indicated 3.5% as the number by which respondents predicted prices would go up over the coming year. That is higher than normal according to experts. They seem to be preparing themselves for costlier groceries et alia.
But here’s the rub: despite people having down days in regards to economies, things are not all that bad. This report says that consumer sentiment is even better than it was at some times in the past. For example, it is higher now than during a period of very low interest rates but a poor economy. This means that perhaps things seem tough at present but they could have been worse.
However, there is this though: while people feel gloomy, investors appear to remain optimistic. The stock market — where people buy and sell shares in companies — has actually been performing very well recently. It has hit record highs; this is quite amazing when you consider all the concerns about inflation and what not. I suppose investors are not like other people anyway.
Talking of ordinary people, there is something else that caught my attention in the report. It said that citizens are not feeling very good about the way the president is managing the economy. I guess a lot of folks are not too happy with how things are going. But hey, it’s more than only the president. According to this report, inflation is a global problem not limited to just US alone. So probably we can only do so much.
Generally, this reading made me realize that economy is quite a complex subject matter. From prices at supermarket and what happens on another part of the globe, there are several factors which may affect people’s attitudes towards it.
However tough these times may be, it’s always important to remember that nothing remains unchanged forever. Who knows maybe next month people will start feeling a bit better about everything in life?
Let’s see and know then!
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