Nearly six in 10 respondents to the most respected consumer sentiment survey in America “spontaneously” complained that their living standards are being eroded by higher prices in this month’s poll.

That share — technically 57% — was the highest since May. It was 46% in February, just prior to Donald Trump’s “Sure, why not? What’s the worst that can happen?” response to Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest request for a White House green light to incinerate the biggest of the black ammameh bosses.

The figure below, from Friday’s preliminary read on the University of Michigan survey, gives you a sense of how the American public views the balance of risks around the Fed’s dual mandate.

I’d say Kevin Warsh should take that into consideration given that the Fed’s supposed to serve the public, but let’s face it: Kevin has another master.

Although inflation expectations receded on both the 12-month and longer-term horizons in Friday’s Michigan release, 4.3% on the former and 3.4% on the latter are still far, far too high.

Let me dwell on those readings for a moment, and particularly the longer run metric, which the Fed used to care about.

We’ve become desensitized to elevated consumer inflation expectations. Recall that a preliminary print of 3.3% on the long run metric (i.e., a tenth lower than Friday’s print) in June of 2022 was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Jerome Powell Fed.

There’s the chart. That print — the 3.3% first-pass estimate for the Michigan “next five years” inflation expectations series in June of 2022 —  tipped the scales in favor of an escalation to 75bps rate hikes. (The preliminary read was revised lower, to 3.1%, later that month.)

Again: We’re desensitized. 3.4% would’ve been (and indeed was) a five-alarm blaze in mid-2022. In November of 2026, it counts as an improvement from the prior month, and goes without garnering any mainstream financial media attention whatever.

In any event, the Michigan sentiment headline was 51 in the first read for this month. That was up slightly from October’s hopeless nadir. The current conditions index, which hit an all-time low in data going back half a century last month, likewise moved up to 51, still terrible by any standard.

In the color accompanying Friday’s release, survey director Joanne Hsu described “modest improvements in multiple domains, including expected personal finances and business conditions.”

Although sentiment was higher for lower- and middle-wealth consumers, “it fell 5% for those with the largest stock portfolios in the wake of a relatively turbulent period” for markets, Hsu went on.

I can only imagine how that stock-rich cohort feels now. The survey period ended on November 2. Things have gotten significantly more “turbulent” on Wall Street since then.