🚨 BREAKING: Americans just lost faith in their own economy at a level we haven't seen in over a decade.
US consumer confidence has crashed to its lowest reading since 2014.
The Conference Board's index fell to 81.9 in September. Economists expected 89.0. That's not a miss. That's a collapse.
But the headline number isn't the scary part.
For the first time since the survey added the question four years ago, more Americans said their personal finances are bad than good.
Read that again.
This isn't people worried about "the economy" in the abstract. It's people looking at their own bank accounts and flinching.
The reasons are painfully simple.
Prices keep climbing. Fuel costs keep biting. And the job market is getting weaker.
That combination is the one economists dread most, because consumer spending is roughly two-thirds of US GDP. When households get scared, they stop spending. When they stop spending, businesses cut back. When businesses cut back, jobs go.
That's how sentiment turns into recession.
Markets are watching. The Fed is watching. Everyone is now asking the same question.
Is this just a bad month, or the first crack before the break?
Follow for real-time macro updates as this develops.
#Economy #Recession #Markets #Inflation #BreakingNews
US consumer confidence has crashed to its lowest reading since 2014.
The Conference Board's index fell to 81.9 in September. Economists expected 89.0. That's not a miss. That's a collapse.
But the headline number isn't the scary part.
For the first time since the survey added the question four years ago, more Americans said their personal finances are bad than good.
Read that again.
This isn't people worried about "the economy" in the abstract. It's people looking at their own bank accounts and flinching.
The reasons are painfully simple.
Prices keep climbing. Fuel costs keep biting. And the job market is getting weaker.
That combination is the one economists dread most, because consumer spending is roughly two-thirds of US GDP. When households get scared, they stop spending. When they stop spending, businesses cut back. When businesses cut back, jobs go.
That's how sentiment turns into recession.
Markets are watching. The Fed is watching. Everyone is now asking the same question.
Is this just a bad month, or the first crack before the break?
Follow for real-time macro updates as this develops.
#Economy #Recession #Markets #Inflation #BreakingNews
