Sentiment deteriorated sharply this month among lower-income consumers and those with smaller stock portfolios, the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers reported Friday.

There was also a decline in morale among respondents identifying as Independents, Reuters reported.

#InflationNation

“The issue that’s going to affect most Mainers is how they’re going to afford to get by this winter,” Debbe Kelley, 70, an engineer in Windham, Maine, told The Times.

#IranWar
#TradeWars
#InflationNation
#SusieTheEnabler

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. is only off slightly today, hovering around $4.40, AAA reported.

The average price of a gallon of gas two days before Trump and Netanyahu attacked Iran was $2.98.

#IranWar
#GasPrices
#InflationNation

Axios noted, just 26% of voters approve of Trump's handling of the economy overall, a fresh low, per the AP.

65% blame his policies for high prices.

In mid-2022, at the worst of the post-COVID inflation, Biden's economic approval rating was 28%, AP noted.

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#FoodPrices
#InflationNation

“Groceries are just like kind of out of control. It seems like everything is going up,” Bethany Lnenicka, 41, who runs a small farm in Fairfax, Iowa, told the AP. “It’s just one thing and the next week it’s another thing. It’s just insane. And of course, your income doesn’t go up.”

#InflationNation

Long-term consumer inflation expectations increased to 3.4% in September, ending three consecutive months at 3.3%.

In recent months, long-term consumer inflation expectations have consistently remained above the 2.8%-3.2% range in 2024, Yahoo Finance reported.

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“A move from 6 to 7 is a big change,” Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, a finance professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, told The Times, “and it will further dampen an already weak housing market.”

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#Tariffs
#InflationNation

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said the Fed has more work to do to help bring down inflation, NBC News reported.

It’s “likely that another rate hike may be appropriate by the end of the year,” Williams said during a speech in London Thursday.

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#InflationNation

“I think we’re going to make the football coaches happy and then go home," said an unhappy Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, Roll Call reported.

“I’ve said since we passed the One Big Beautiful Bill that we ought to be doing something to address the cost of living. We haven’t."

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"The plain fact is inflation is too high and has been for too long."
--Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, speaking after announcing a unanimous vote in favor of the first hike in interest rates in three years.

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#InflationNation

Fed's FOMC voted 12-0 to hike interest rates a quarter percent, CNBC reported.

“Inflation remains elevated,” Fed said in a post-meeting statement. “Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability.”

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American consumers expect prices to rise 4.6% over the next year, a jump in sentiment from 4% a month ago, Bloomberg reported.

Consumers also see costs rising at an annual rate of 3.4% the next five to 10 years -- again a worse outlook than what they estimated in August.

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#TradeWar

Late breaking news from the second front along the Red Sea:

Attacks shut down Saudi's East-West pipeline, CNBC reported a short while ago.

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#Houthis
#OilPrice
#InflationNation

"The president can continue to say 'Inflation is way down. Everything is great. The prices are coming down,' but telling Americans not to believe their own wallets tends to be a bad idea, especially in an election year," writes Steve Benen.

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It puts the Houthis closer to their goal of targeting shipping through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and could give Iran another potential point of leverage in its war with the US, The Independent reported.

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#EndlessWars
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Outside of energy, the cost of electronic components leapt by 3.4% last month and are up 27.6% for the year. That’s a byproduct of the AI buildout, Stephen Brown, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said in a note Thursday morning, CNN reported.

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“You can’t hide the fact of what the price of gasoline is, we know that,” Collins told POLITICO in an interview after the closed-door meeting.

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“It’s actually ridiculous,” Ohio resident Hannah Mosher told WJW.

“All of our bills have been going up, all of it, everything,” Mosher added.

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#GasPrices
#InflationNation