“Consumer sentiment slid in November compared with last month, the University of Michigan’s monthly survey found,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The survey’s headline index dropped to 51, hovering near one of the lowest levels in the monthly poll’s history.”

Wall Street Journal: “After nearly five years of high prices, many middle-class earners thought life would be more affordable by now. Costs for goods and services are 25% above where they were in 2020. Even though the inflation rate is below its recent 2022 high, certain essentials like coffee, ground beef and car repairs are up markedly this year.”

New York Times: “Employers are signaling a more cautious approach to holiday hiring this year. Retailers that normally add staff for the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas rush, such as UPS, haven’t released their typical hiring targets. Others, like Kroger, have said they expected to bring on fewer temporary workers than last year.”

Paul Krugman: “It may be that Trump is — bear with me here — actually paying a price for telling Americans not to believe their own eyes. As I’ve written recently, it’s important not to engage in false equivalence. Biden and company told Americans that their incomes were outpacing inflation, which was true but not what people wanted to hear. Trump keeps insisting that grocery prices are way down, which is simply a lie. And people may be noticing.”

“The absolute absurdity of the Trump team’s efforts to explain away bad economic news may also be taking a toll.”

New York Times: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to explain high beef prices over the weekend by blaming undocumented immigrants, saying they were bringing sick cows into the United States. Mr. Bessent said that forced the Trump administration to halt imports of beef from Mexico, which is the second-largest supplier of beef to the United States.”

A new Fox News poll finds some 76% of voters view the economy negatively.

“That’s worse than the 67% who felt that way in July, and the 70% who said the same at the end of former President Biden’s term.”

Also important: “Voters blame the president. About twice as many say President Donald Trump, rather than Biden, is responsible for the current economy. And three times as many say Trump’s economic policies have hurt them.”

And more: “Approval of how Trump is handling the economy hit a new low and disapproval of his overall job performance hit record highs among core supporters.”

Playbook: “For politicians eyeing the midterms, the only economic fact that matters is that too many voters who struggled to make ends meet last year have felt little or no improvement in their finances. But so far, Trump — typically such a powerful deliverer of political messages — just doesn’t seem to have his heart in a cost-of-living campaign.”

“Every day, Trump speaks passionately about his achievements — a record-breaking stock market, big reductions in egg and gasoline prices, strong earnings growth, no tax on tips. But there’s no acknowledgement his supporters are still struggling, no promise to tackle their concerns head-on.”

“In fact, Trump seems to find the whole debate to be a bit of nonsense.”

“Your financial situation — not just what you earn but whether you’re in over your head — is strongly linked to how you feel about democracy, according to a significant new study by Gallup and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation,” Axios reports.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a new schedule on Wednesday for its data releases in the wake of the government shutdown,” the New York Times reports.

“Notably, the October jobs report will not be released independently.”

“President Trump’s sweeping tariffs took a toll on trade in August, as imports dropped 5.1 percent, to $340.4 billion, after taxes on exports from roughly 90 countries went into effect on Aug. 7,” the New York Times reports.

“The data, which had been delayed by more than a month because of the government shutdown, gives the first look at trade patterns after Mr. Trump introduced what is effectively a new trading system for the United States.”

“A proposal to give Americans direct payments of $2,000 or more. An antitrust probe into allegations that meatpacking companies are colluding to drive up beef prices. And a new plan to lower tariffs on coffee, fruit and other popular products,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Trump and his advisers are rushing to try to lower prices for U.S. consumers after voters sent a warning shot to Republicans this month over the high cost of living.”

“President Trump on Friday moved to lower tariffs on beef, coffee and dozens of agricultural and food goods, marking a significant rollback of his so-called reciprocal levies as he looks for ways to address Americans’ concerns about the cost of living,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The move continues a shift away from Trump’s maximalist tariff policy. When the president announced his reciprocal tariffs this spring, his economic team insisted there would be no exemptions to the levies.”

Stephen Roach: “Affordability is about the price level, not the rate of change of prices. Disinflation, or a decelerating rate of change in inflation is a good thing, especially for inflation-targeting central banks. But even in a disinflation, prices keep rising, providing no relief to the fundamental problem of pocket-book distress known as affordability.”

“Moreover, with the lagged impacts of tariffs now largely responsible for most of the reacceleration of headline CPI inflation from the April low of 2.3% to the latest reading of 3.0% in pre-shutdown September, the price-level affordability issue is once again going from bad to worse. And these pressures are likely to persist, with further tariff-related increases still in the pipeline.”

Torsten Slok: “In 2010, the median age of all US homebuyers was 39 years old. Today, it is 59.”

“Employers have a warning for the Class of 2026: Next spring’s graduate-hiring market is likely to be even worse than this year’s,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Six months out from graduation season, more than half of 183 employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers rate the job market for the Class of 2026 as poor or fair. That is the most pessimistic outlook since the first year of the pandemic, according to the survey, which is widely seen as an early signal of graduate hiring each year.”

Derek Thompson: Are young people screwed?

G. Elliot Morris: “As of Q3 2025, the Democrats have their first lead on the economy in over 5 years — and the largest lead over Republicans in over a decade.”