Worried Consumers Keep Spending: Here’s Why

RIA · Oct 7, 2026

For nearly four years, economists have been predicting that consumers would fail the economy. To their point, sustained high inflation, the fastest Fed tightening cycle in decades, and more recently, surging gasoline prices and interest rates should be taking a toll on consumer spending. In some respects, those and other factors are weighing on the consumer’s mind. As we share below, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment gauge sits at a 50-year low, and the less politically biased Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index is down to 2014 levels. Yet despite many reasons for consumers…