Americans Are Feeling Intense Pressure from Inflation and a Deep Loss of Control over their Own Lives
Ninety percent of Americans feel the nation is in an affordability crisis—the new catch phrase for endless above-target inflation, which has become the new norm. The new norm, however, was just reported as getting wore, rising to 3.5% YoY inflation. The rise was due to the war and particularly fuel prices.
A third of Americans feel the crisis is existential now—as in they worry about whether they will continue to exist if it keeps going on like this. That might be a little over-dramatic, but it’s certainly understandable that a third would feel any lifestyle remotely matching what they have known might not continue to exist for them, and that is because more a third of all Americans say they have experienced two major unplanned lifestyle changes in the past year. Forty percent say their entire lives feel out of control.
It has not just been hard, they say; it has been “disorienting.” That, of course, is a downside effect of a year of chaos, and this second year of King Trump’s reign looks to be no less chaotic than the last.
As half the nation now struggles to pay their bills on time and half say they struggle to buy food, the skyrocketing price of energy that laid into the March PCE inflation report and that just got far worse in the past week with gasoline and diesel prices rocketing higher than many have seen in their entire lives, there is going to be little patience for weathering still higher fuel prices that are likely to arrive when summer hits. Expect patience to wear thin quickly and rage to rise as more and more people are reaching their limits.
When people feel unable to influence the things that matter most, their career, their finances, the broader sense of where the country is headed, the psychological fallout is predictable. Anxiety, helplessness, and that disquieting sense of watching your own life happen to you rather than being authored by you.
Psychologists recommend if you are feeling a level of stress that changes the person you are in ways you do not like, try to focus on the things you can change or affect. Choose some things that calm you like a walk, music, whatever works for you. Little breaks taken almost religiously can help keep the stress from piling up.
So, of course, can true religion, itself, as millions have found when simply and humbly turning toward faith in something beautiful that has stood the test of time—something bigger than oneself. I’m obviously not talking the religion of the Trump cult. I’m talking the kind of faith in something beyond oneself and certainly outside of politics—the kind of hope that has helped many people in times of trouble. It often starts small, of course, with maybe a course correction toward seeking it and finding it, perhaps in the company of others who travel alongside you. A new journey, by itself, can take ones mind off the troubles of this world—a reset.
Rather than staying stuck, a large majority (79%) said they’re planning some kind of mid-year reset, whether focused on mental health (33%), physical health (33%), or finances (25%) [or spiritual health?]. That’s not a minor footnote. It suggests that even amid widespread instability, most Americans are looking for ways to take back control where they can.
And making those changes is resulting in some return of optimism from the past year.
Existential crises tend to arrive when the gap between how life feels and how we thought it would feel becomes too wide to ignore. Right now, that gap is wide for a lot of people. But the willingness to course-correct, even in small ways, may be exactly the kind of agency that helps people find their footing again.
Economania (national & global economic collapse plus market news)
Dow surges nearly 800 points, S&P 500 posts first close above 7,200 and best month since 2020
US national debt tops 100% of GDP
Money Matters (monetary policy, metals, cryptos, currency wars & going cashless)
Behind Powell’s High-Stakes Decision to Stay at the Fed
Inflation Factors (too much money chasing too few goods due to weather, sanctions, tariffs, quarantines, etc.)
Almost 9 in 10 Americans Think the Country Is in an Affordability Crisis
Inflation spikes to 3.5 percent in March as Iran war drove prices higher
Core inflation rate hit 3.2% in March as first-quarter growth disappointed at 2%
Oil prices hit wartime peak, pushing U.S. gas costs to highest since level July 2022
Gasoline Spikes Nearly $1 Per Gallon in ONE DAY in the US Midwest
Pain at the pump is intensifying for US consumers as Iran war drags on
Wars & Rumors of War (including cyberwar, civil unrest and revolts)
Iran’s supreme leader vows to protect nuclear and missile capabilities
Trump to get briefed on potential Iran strikes before war hits key 60-day deadline
Democrat Rep. Moulton Suggests Secretary Of War Hegseth Be ‘Executed’ For War Crimes
The U.S. Military Was Losing Its Edge. After Iran, Everyone Knows It. (Overspending on bigness)
Graphic shows how Iran war is most unpopular conflict of last 76 years
Political Pandemonium & Social Senescence (socio-political issues & events)
House strips MAHA-hated pesticide protections from farm bill
Tucker Carlson Burns It Down, Tells Trump, ‘You Have Failed’
About 6 in 10 say they try to avoid Trump news
Deep Domination (globalism, unelected government, unconstitutional government & censorship)
Press freedom at lowest level in 25 years
A Pox Upon Us (the plagues, pandemics & health police of the 2020s)
Hope for Hard Times
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. (Revelation 22:20-21)
Doomer Humor
Good morning. I’d argue it was a slow burn from 2008-2020, then an accelerated burn from 2020-2024, and now it’s an out of control raging inferno that only ends when there’s no more material to consume. And the comes the rebuild and reset. Which will look nothing like the way it used to be.
Which I think is just about exactly what they have planned for many decades.
I hope I’m wrong.
Revolutions start when the poorest man cant feed his family.