Headline consumer sentiment is polluted by junk like this article. People report their personal household situation is fine and they expect it to continue being at least this good or better in 1 and 5 years. But they've heard so much shadowstats horseshit on the radio that they are compelled to stake out a negative view on the economy as a whole.

In the latest UMich consumer survey majority of respondents expect their incomes to grow faster than prices, in fact the reported probability of real personal income rising has never been higher in the history of the survey. And, with respect to inflation, consumers expect incomes to rise about 2.5% per year, and that expectation is higher than the expected increase in prices. During times of very high inflation respondents reported expectations of 6% nominal income increases. So this is all consistent with the idea that inflation as people actually experience it has been moderate. But, further down the February results, you can see that record numbers of people report hearing negative news stories about prices, way way way higher than in 1980! Which is totally crazy if you were here in 1980! You can also read further and see that expectation of rising unemployment have been consistently high for the last 5 years, and reports of having heard news stories about unemployment have been at record highs, while responses about the probability of losing their own job are at record lows and of course objective unemployment is almost dangerously low.