Could’ve been worse?

That’s a question. I’m not sure of the answer.

The preliminary read on University of Michigan sentiment for December, released on Friday into what still felt like a post-holiday morass in the US, suggested overall household moods barely improved early this month.

53.3 on the headline was technically a beat (consensus was 52), but it’s still a very poor reading, to put it mildly. The current conditions index, which hit a record low in November, moved down again if you can believe it.

There’s the chart and it’s not pretty: 50.7’s a new record low.

So, congratulations to Donald Trump: 11 months into his second term — and 10 months into America’s new “golden age” — the most widely-cited measure of current household macro-financial perceptions is making new record lows on a monthly basis.

As for the expectations index, it managed a four-point gain to 55, but here again, we’re talking about very bad prints regardless. (The long run average for the forward-looking index is 78.)

Survey director Joanne Hsu tried to put a smiley face on this, but it was tough going. “[E]xpectations improved [but] December’s reading on expected personal finances is [still] nearly 12% below the beginning of the year,” she wrote, adding that “labor market expectations remain relatively dismal.”

Yes, “relatively dismal.” That captures it quite well. There was just one bright spot: Inflation expectations fell to an 11-month low. As it turns out, one good way to bring down price growth is to instigate a recession.