With the usual caveat that it’s what consumers do that counts, not necessarily what they say, the final read on America’s marquee measures of household sentiment were poor for October.

Data released on Friday found the University of Michigan’s current conditions index printing 58.6, down from September and the worst reading in years.

As the figure below shows, this measure of household perceptions about “the state of things,” so to speak, hasn’t been worse since headline inflation in the US was running north of 8%.

For context, the post-GFC average is 88.5 on that gauge.

It’s tempting to say something snarky about Donald Trump and his “golden age.” If that’s your inclination, I won’t blame you. And I’ll chuckle at your joke, assuming it’s a modicum of clever. But it’d be dishonest of me not to note that households weren’t exactly enamored with Joe Biden either, otherwise we’d have President Kamala Harris right now. (Oh, wait. No we wouldn’t. Because she’s a black woman. And for rural white men, that’s even more of a non-starter than imported beer.)

Survey director Joanne Hsu largely repeated what she said in the color accompanying the initial prints for October. “There was little evidence this month that consumers connect the federal government shutdown to the economy,” she said Friday, adding that just 2% of respondents spontaneously mentioned the funding lapse.

Still, it’s reasonable to suggest the ongoing standoff in D.C. is adding to the generalized sense of angst and depression commonly referred to as a “vibecession.” And there’s no evidence that the shutdown’s any closer to a resolution.

The expectations gauge, shown above, slipped from the first reading for October. At 50.3, it’s the lowest since the aftermath of Liberation Day and among the lowest in history.

The key five- to 10-year inflation expectations metric rose two tenths from the preliminary reading to 3.9%, the highest since June. Do note: That’d be a red, wailing siren under normal circumstances. 3.9% is very high on that measure. But we’ve decided it doesn’t matter anymore, just like we’ve implicitly accepted that 3% is the Fed’s new inflation target.

The Michigan update came on the heels of a benign read on core price growth from the BLS, and what I’ll call “mixed reviews” from preliminary PMIs released by S&P Global.

Commenting on Friday morning in connection with another tariff temper tantrum, Donald Trump said, “THE UNITED STATES IS WEALTHY, POWERFUL, AND NATIONALLY SECURE AGAIN.”