unfortunately no improvement

Nov. 30th

Late last week the University of MI consumer sentiment report and analysis was released. It is “present” looking study and has over 30 years of historical data to compare the present with. It is a nice, short and sweet snapshot of the national consumer “feeling” about spending and earning. The November report highlights:

Unfortunately, there has been no improvement in consumers’ financial prospect in the past two years. While consumers clearly believe that the recovery has gained some traction, most still think that the economic gains will be too small to improve their own job and income position anytime soon.”

The personal finances of consumers remained quite bleak in November. Nearly twice as many consumers re-ported that their finances had worsened rather than improved during the past year, with one-in-three reporting declines in household income.

The majority of households expected no income increase during the year ahead in November, for the 23rd consecutive

The Expectations Index, a component of the Index of Leading Economic Indicators, worsened during the past year (-2.6%).

The monthly report is available here: https://customers.reuters.com/community/university/default.aspx#