The New Yorker: Americans Are Starting to Feel Better About the Economy

In today’s newsletter, the jump in consumer sentiment, and then:
•The race against Trump heads to New Hampshire
•The campaign against D.E.I.
•Trump on the trail and on trial

Americans Are Finally Starting to Feel Better About the Economy

Consumer sentiment, among Democrats and Republicans, has jumped sharply in the past two months. That’s encouraging news for Joe Biden.

Source photograph by Spencer Platt / Getty

While the political worldis focussed on the G.O.P. primary in New Hampshire, the financial markets have been assimilating some positive economic news—a very welcome development for the Democrats. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment rose by thirteen per cent in January, reaching its highest level in two and a half years. The index has jumped twenty-nine per cent in the past two months, which is the biggest such increase in more than thirty years. This month, “there was a broad consensus of improved sentiment across age, income, education, and geography,” Joanne Hsu, the director of the Michigan survey, said in a statement accompanying the release of the January figure. “Democrats and Republicans alike showed their most favorable readings since summer of 2021.”

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“I’d like to thank for his endorsement, Ron De . . . Superfantastic.”

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Americans Are Starting to Feel Better About the Economy