A strange phenomenon in the U.S. economy: The data hasn’t collapsed, but ordinary people have! What’s going wrong?

If you look only at economic data, the U.S. economy may not yet be at its most dangerous point. But listen to ordinary people complain, and you might think everyone’s wallet has been through a financial crisis.
That’s what makes the U.S. economy today worth thinking about: macroeconomic data and personal experience sometimes aren’t even on the same wavelength.
The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 48.0 in October 2026, near its all-time low and well below 53.6 a year earlier. Meanwhile, consumers’ inflation expectations for the coming year rose to 4.7%. This shows that even while people are still working and stores are still open, worries about future prices and household purchasing power persist.
Why is this happening?
Because economic growth doesn’t mean everyone is doing well. Some people own stocks, real estate, and ample savings, so naturally they feel more confident when asset prices rise. Others rely mainly on wages, yet face rent, food, gas, and insurance bills every month. The former watch the markets; the latter watch supermarket price tags. It’s no surprise that two people can look at the same economic environment and judge it completely differently.
More interestingly, low consumer confidence doesn’t mean spending will immediately plunge off a cliff. As long as some high-income households can still afford to spend, overall spending may remain somewhat resilient. But that doesn’t mean every household is doing fine; it only shows that different groups vary in how much pressure they can withstand.
Think of it this way: In a restaurant, some people order steak while others order only water. The average spending per person may look decent when the bill is tallied, but that doesn’t mean everyone ate well.
So what we should really focus on isn’t just whether the U.S. economy is growing, but whether the benefits of that growth are translating into greater purchasing power for more households.
After all, GDP can tell a story, but household bills are never forgiving. When economic report cards diverge from people’s lived experience, consumer confidence is naturally hard to revive.
What the economy should fear most may not be people complaining, but that afterward, they lose all desire to spend.
$NVDA

‌#美国消费者信心接近历史低点