A cashier loads a turkey and other groceries for checkout at a Walmart Supercenter retail store in North Bergen, New Jersey, U.S., November 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
Consumer sentiment is now at its lowest point in its 74-year recorded history, amid a soaring cost of living, skyrocketing energy prices and President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
Sentiment dropped by double digits, “lower than anything seen in the post World War II era, including during the Great Recession, the pandemic downturn and the historic inflation surge afterward,” CNN reported. It’s also worse than one year ago, when President Donald Trump announced his tariffs.
Many participants in the University of Michigan survey pin the blame for their economic dissatisfaction on the Iran war, Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in a release.
Dissatisfaction was widespread.
“Demographic groups across age, income, and political party all posted setbacks in sentiment, as did every component of the index, reflecting the widespread nature of this month’s fall,” Hsu added.
Americans believe inflation will soar over the next year, up to 4.8 percent, the survey, published Friday, found. That 4.8% would be “the biggest monthly increase in a year, when Trump unveiled his sweeping ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs,” CNN noted.
Two years ago, in March of 2024, the Consumer Sentiment survey jumped to its highest level since July 2021, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Author Derek Thompson, who co-wrote the book “Abundance,” notes that America is “not ok.”
He points to three separate surveys, including the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey, the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and the Gallup World Happiness Survey, and says that “all put US self-reported sentiment at record-low levels.”