Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about the

expectations for the future of the Trump economy. The conference board said the Consumer

Confidence Index dropped to 88.7 in November. That's the lowest results since April, when Trump announced his

tariffs and tanked the stock market. But that isn't actually the bad news. I mean, it's bad news,

but it's not the worst news to come out of the recent conference board survey. Last time,

when we went over these numbers, we got a question saying

that they knew the numbers were important, but that people don't have a ready comparison for them.

And that makes sense, because the numbers are actually a comparison to 1985. So today, we'll provide more relatable comparisons for each of the

three readings. When discussing the report, Dana Peterson, who is the chief economist at the

conference board, said, quote, consumers write in responses pertaining to factors affecting the economy continued

to be led by references to prices and inflation, tariffs and trade, and politics, with increased

mentions of the federal government shutdown. This survey period ran until just after the shutdown ended. The process of the federal government shutdown. This survey period ran until just after the shutdown ended.

The present situation index, which, as the name suggests,

measures how people feel about the economy now,

came in at 126.9.

That's not actually a horrible reading, but continues the slow decline that has plagued

Trump's economy. The real bad news was in the expectations index, which measures how consumers feel

income, business, and labor market conditions, so the economy overall, will be in six months.

The expectations index collapsed 8.6 points to 63.2.

Peterson said, quote, consumers were notably more pessimistic about business conditions six months from now.

Mid-2026 expectations for labor market conditions remain decidedly negative,

and expectations for increased household incomes shrunk dramatically.

...