WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence declined slightly this month as gas prices stayed high and inflation remained elevated, a sharp contrast to soaring stock prices hover near record levels.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, the first decline after three months of gains. The measure hasn’t fallen as much this year as other gauges of consumer attitudes, but it has been stuck at a low level since the pandemic. Before COVID-19, it regularly reached 130.

A separate gauge of consumer sentiment released last week by the University of Michigan fell to a record low this month. Soaring gas and food costs have worsened inflation that is outpacing the average growth in paychecks, reducing most Americans’ purchasing power. Americans have soured on President Trump’s economic policies, polls show, potentially creating problems for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 days ago

    That’s a lie. Dems loved putting people in cages too, and in fact, Obama built many of them.

    Go look up who originally appointed Tom Homan if you don’t believe me.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 days ago

        Oh, I can.

        The difference is presentation. That’s it. Donald is doing everything in the light that was previously hidden behind rhetoric.

        And before you try and tell me just how powerless Biden was to keep all of these awful things from occurring or stopping Dems from participating in them, I’ll just direct you to the first two years of Donald’s second term, wherein he’s proven definitively that the Democrats had the power they needed to do anything they promised multiple times over the last three decades.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          Both parties use the same consultants, I don’t see why people don’t see that as the real issue. The consultancy class is making a killing off of both parties while actively ignoring the populace. The more they ignore us, the more they get paid to understand us, which they will continue to actively fail at because they don’t want to understand us: they just want to get paid, doesn’t matter the party. They really make their money by telling politicians what they want to hear about their constituents, rather than constituent reality. That’s why Chuck Schumer literally makes up his constituents, I’m not kidding, he talks to imaginary constituents he thinks represents people.

          Also, yes, Obama appointed Tom Homan, and people need to stop pretending the Democrats haven’t had any hand in this.

          They really love defending the guy who ramped up the drone war, because it wasn’t our soldiers dying, it was just kids who were “terrorists.” He codified and legalized the worst excesses of the Bush admin and that’s why Trump has his hands on mass surveillance via Palantir and more. People like us warned the Democrats not to do it, in case someone like Trump arose. Someone you couldn’t trust with those powers.

    • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You have to be fucking delusional to compare everything Trump is doing with ICE, the National Guard, the USMC and the mass creation of concentration camps, along with reclassifying antifa as “terrorists” to justify bypassing civil rights to kill or lock up dissidents, to anything the Dems have ever done.

      • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        But by saying “both sides” I can refuse to educate myself or get involved all while maintaining a smug sense of superiority. Sounds like a win-win to me.