Prior to the 2016 election (Oct ’16) consumer confidence measured by the University of Michigan was indexed at 87.2  Today that same confidence rating is 101.1  A stunning 15.9% increase.  Similarly, consumer expectations were indexing 76.8 in October 2016 and now stand at 91.3, an increase of 18.9%.

(Data)

Consumer confidence is at the highest level since 2004 and Americans have the brightest outlook for their economic future in decades.  The MAGAnomic data is clear. Yet even those who assemble the data interpret MAGAnomics with some false assumptions.

Nonetheless, consumers anticipate low unemployment, low inflation, small increases in interest rates, and most importantly, modest income gains in the year ahead. [True]
It is this acceptance of lackluster growth rates in personal income and in the overall economy that signifies that consumers have accepted, however reluctantly, limits on the pace of improving prospects for living standards.  [False interpretation]

With lowered costs associated with highly-consumable, albeit non Fed measured products (fuel, food, energy), average living standards actually increase.  It is a false interpretation of data to say consumer confidence/expectations are at the highest levels in fifteen years, and simultaneously say people have resigned themselves to stagnant living standards.

President Trump’s MAGAnomic Main Street policy initiatives surround a very basic set of principles. To add wealth to the middle class you: A.) increase wages, and B.) lower the cost of living.
Increasing wages is the long-term economic outcome from America-First business and corporate manufacturing policies (Secretary Wilbur Ross), in combination with fiscal policies (Secretary Mnuchin). Subsequently, within his economic agenda, President Trump visibly engages an extraordinary amount of effort on both Commerce and Treasury.
However, there’s a part of the plan for reestablishing middle-class wealth that also comes from lowering the cost of living (high consumables). That’s where EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt intersects with Ross and Mnuchin as Pruitt works to lower energy costs.
Lowering energy costs has an exponential benefit to the overall economy. Not only does it drive down the cost of domestic highly consumable products, but it also cements the building blocks of the manufacturing and production sector. Lower energy costs offset higher wages on products manufactured for export and helps keep the U.S. competitive.
American businesses, American workers, and American consumers have a good sense for how this works.  More importantly we can actually feel it in our week-to-week and month-to-month expenditures.   The current economic environment is good; the outlook for the future economic environment is even better…

[Via Business Insider]  US consumers haven’t been this optimistic about the economy since the start of 2004, according to a survey conducted by the University of Michigan. 

The consumer-sentiment index registered a preliminary October reading of 101.1, a monthly report showed Friday.

The data suggest that consumer spending will likely continue to support the economy through at least mid-2018, at which time this economic expansion would become the second-longest since the 19th century. US economic growth in the second quarter rose to a two-year high on stronger consumer and business spending, a late-September report showed. 

The surge in optimism “reflects an unmistakable sense among consumers that economic prospects are now about as good as could be expected,” said Richard Curtin, the chief economist of the survey.

“This ‘as good as it gets’ outlook is supported by a moderation in the expected pace of growth in both personal finances and the overall economy, accompanied by a growing sense that, even with this moderation, it would still mean the continuation of good economic times.”  (read more)

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