Americans are bummed out about inflation. And yet they don’t seem to see it as a lasting problem.
The University of Michigan on Friday said that, in a preliminary reading, its measure of consumer sentiment among U.S. households fell to 61.7 this month from 67.2 in January. That was the lowest level since 2011. It is a reading that is, in some regards, hard to square with recent news, such as the sharp decline in Covid-19 cases over the past month and the booming job market.
But then there is inflation, which hit a 40-year high last month, and which is cutting into people’s buying power while also raising the specter of higher interest rates. Michigan economist
Richard Curtin,
who oversees the consumer survey, noted that a third of respondents cited the impact of inflation on…
