Today's UMich Consumer Sentiment report was a painful eye-opener: as we noted earlier, following UMich's sentiment slump in July, analysts expected a further (modest) slide in Americans' confidence in preliminary August data this morning but they were very wrong as sentiment crashed in early August data according to UMich Sentiment survey with the headline plunging from 81.2 to 70.0 - that is weaker than the April 2020 COVID crisis lows, while expectations collapsed too. {chart} As UMich economist Richard Curtin observed over the past half century the Sentiment Index has only recorded larger losses in six other ... (full story)