Personally, I blame the media which is acting as though we are in the midst of the Great Depression and people are begging in the streets. This is despite the fact that this is the best labor market for workers in many decades (which tells you something about their perspective.)
Joe Weisenthal offers some other data in his newsletter
WHY CONSUMER SENTIMENT IS CRASHING WHILE THE JOB AND STOCK MARKET ARE BOOMING
In today’s @markets newsletter I wrote about this seeming disconnect.
IMO there’s one simple reason for it and one interesting reason for it.
Basically I think it’s a combo of
1) Inflation
2) Extreme partisan polarization on all things economy
2a) The surging quits rate affecting Republican small business owners specifically.
The big question is now whether these sentiment readings actually translate into a slower economy. It’s one thing to be upset. It’s another thing to pull back on investment and consumption.
Also thanks to @pearkes for the quits chart.
Anyway, sign up for the newsletter here.
Tomorrow I’ll write about MMT or inflation or the Fed or crypto or supply chains or semiconductors or why stocks are rallying or yieldbugs
Originally tweeted by Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) on November 15, 2021.
It’s could end up being a self-fulfilling prophesy. So far, the markets are ignoring the noise and continue to do well. Workers, especially at the lower levels of the pay scale, are experiencing wage increases and freedom and power they haven’t had in many years. Inflation is biting, and it freaks people out but it’s part of the hangover from the pandemic and temporarily unavoidable. Nonetheless, if you didn’t know better you’d think that the economy is in freefall and Biden’s handling of it is catastrophic.
I think the most interesting data point from Weisenthal is the partisan divide which goes a long way toward explaining what’s going on here. It would be very helpful if cable news and local news broadcasts could make that clear.