MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY

What a shame the Biden-HARRIS administration has nothing but leaky boats on hand, huh?

Because, with the kind of economic news that Team Kamala's had come in lately, I would practice my best Celine Dion impression and start singing from the bow, hoping a seaworthy lifeboat had room as they passed by.

via GIPHY

That's what they always tell you to sell tickets.

Or something completely bogus like Beyoncé will make a special appearance.

TRUST US

And that's when there's another reality iceberg - WHAP.

Consumers’ view on the economy tumbled in September, falling by the largest level in more than three years as fears grew about jobs and business conditions, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

The board’s consumer confidence index slid to 98.7, down from 105.6 in August, the biggest one-month decline since August 2021. The Dow Jones consensus forecast was for a reading of 104. By contrast, the index had a reading of 132.6 in February 2020, a month before the Covid pandemic hit.

Each of the five components the organization samples fared worse on the month, with the biggest fall coming among those aged 35-54 and earning less than $50,000.

“Consumers’ assessments of current business conditions turned negative while views of the current labor market situation softened further. Consumers were also more pessimistic about future labor market conditions and less positive about future business conditions and future income,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board.

Santelli's quick rundown is a litany of statistical dreariness and only serves to reinforce what those man-in-the-street interviews have been telling a cheerleading media aghast at hearing it over and over again.

Kamala Harris is not popular, and, as second in command of the Biden-HARRIS administration, she is being held responsible for the general doom and gloom that people are experiencing.

Newsweek was even less sanguine than the stalwarts as CNBC. They'd used the "p" word.

U.S. Consumer Confidence Plummets in September Amid Rising Job Concerns

It's Eeyore all the way and no wonder.

...Americans' short-term outlook for income, business and the job market dropped to 81.7 in August, down from 86.3 in July. A reading below 80 is often seen as an indicator of a possible recession on the horizon.

...Employers added 142,000 jobs in August, a modest increase from July's weaker gain of 89,000. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent, which had marked its highest point in nearly three years. Hiring figures for June and July were revised downward by a combined 86,000 jobs, with July's numbers representing the smallest monthly gain since the pandemic began.

In addition to the sluggish job growth in July and August, the government revealed earlier this month that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs between April 2023 and March than initially reported. This revision reinforces mounting evidence that the job market has been consistently cooling.

I run into folks talking about tough times anecdotally on X all the time. One really nice young guy had kind of a surprising comment under the CNBC xweet on this, and I had to quiz him about it.

I can tell you working with Walgreens for over 17 years are front year sales are the worst I have ever seen.. 20 x worse than 2007

— mattw (@nnorthtexasboy) September 24, 2024

I mean, Walgreen's? Really? As I told him, that's very much a neighborhood market in our neck of the woods. Closer than a Dollar General in many cases for folks who don't have transportation for sundries and basic comestibles.

And he said yeah.

Sales front national wide has been very bad for us

— mattw (@nnorthtexasboy) September 24, 2024

And sure as shootin', I see what he means. As of June of this year, the new CEO is taking a carving knife to the chain.

Walgreens on Thursday said it could shutter up to a quarter of its more than 8,600 US locations amid plunging retail sales as inflation-battered shoppers cut back on spending.

The struggling drug store chain, which closed 150 US locations last year, cut its profit forecast ahead of reporting its quarterly earnings — sending the company’s stock plummeting by nearly 25% in mid-day trading.

Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth, who took over the 123-year-old company in October, cited “persistent pressures on the US consumer and the impact of recent marketplace dynamics, which have eroded pharmacy margins” for the lowered expectations.

He announced a turnaround plan that includes closing underperforming stores, the removal of multiple mid-level executives and a $1 billion cost-cutting initiative.

This is all on Biden-HARRIS, and she can't hide from it.

More from the #Consumerconfidence on present conditions. Views on current biz conditions “turned negative” w/the share saying things were “good” falling to 18.8% from 21.1% while the share saying things are “bad” rose to 20.2% from 17.3%.

Assessments of current household… pic.twitter.com/6U7yo2yx6h

— Neil Sethi (@neilksethi) September 24, 2024

...Assessments of current household finances also deteriorated with the share saying things are “bad” the highest of the year and those saying “good” the lowest.

She can keep running, but when the election is 40 some-odd days away, she has no answers for anything, and the share of households - households - who say "THINGS ARE BAD" is the highest of the year?

Woof.

That fake-out about 'Trump's economy' isn't ever gonna fly.

We knuckle-draggers are like Pepperidge Farm - we remember. 

Exactly who's responsible, and exactly what it was like before it all got jacked up.