ECONOMY PERKS UP, CONSUMER CONFIDENCE GOES DOWN

IHS Markit’s U.S. Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 56.0 in February from 51.6 in January, signaling a surge in economic activity, the data service said.
Europe’s PMI jumped from 52.3 in January to 55.8 in February, the largest gain since September. In the U.K., the index shot up to 60.2 last month from 54.2 in January.
Ratings above 50 indicate growth; the higher the number, the more robust the expansion.
At the same time, the Conference Board’s survey of consumer sentiment sagged for the second consecutive month, slipping from 111.1 in January to 110.5 in February.
The number of households planning to spend on major appliances, autos, homes, and vacations all shrank.
Consumers’ “confidence and spending will continue to face headwinds from rising prices in the coming months,” the group said in a statement announcing the survey results.
U.S. inflation climbed by 7.5 percent in January compared to a year earlier, the fastest pace since February 1982.
For the first time, the number of Americans who say they are “not too happy” outnumber those who claim to be “very happy,” a recent University of Chicago poll found.
Part of the weariness is COVID fatigue: a January Monmouth University poll found seven in 10 Americans agreed that “it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and just get on with our lives.”
Although inflation has not reached double digits, as it did in the mid- and late 1970s when it peaked at 14.6 percent, its relatively swift arrival, compared to building over years as it did in the 1970s, has eroded public confidence in U.S. leaders and institutions, even among those who are not suffering economically. 
A year ago, Jerome Powell, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, predicted inflation would remain no higher than 3 percent in 2021. When it quickly vaulted beyond that mark, Powell and Biden administration officials, including treasury secretary Janet Yellin and Biden himself, chalked higher prices up to “temporary” factors.
In February, confidence in the economy among independent voters slumped to its lowest point since 2009, the University of Michigan’s monthly survey of consumer confidence reported, and public confidence in government economic policies is at its gloomiest since 2014.
President Joe Biden’s approval rating had sunk to 41.7 percent as of 23 February, compared to 52.7 percent last summer, according to a FiveThirtyEight survey.
Biden is counting on the economic recovery, driven in part by federal stimulus spending and his $1.9-trillion infrastructure plan, to buoy his and other Democrats’ hopes at the polls this fall, The Wall Street Journal said.
TRENDPOST: It’s the economy, stupid.
As we have greatly detailed, the rich have gotten richer as the middle class keeps shrinking. Good economic statistics mean little when a loaf of bread costs $6 or your grocery store is chronically out of cat food.
Russia’s war deals a major setback to Biden’s hopes of halting inflation that will pick voters’ pockets between now and November.
The Fed’s action to curb inflation will be too little too late.
The war in Ukraine and its aftermath will leave the Fed, already cautious, even more reluctant to raise interest rates dramatically enough to have a near-term effect on rising prices.