VOA News | Monday, September 23, 2024 
High inflation memories cloud US consumers’ outlooks 

Washington — Even before the Federal Reserve approved its outsized half-percentage-point interest rate cut last week, financial markets had begun making credit cheaper for households and businesses as they bid down mortgage rates, cut corporate bond yields, and chipped away at what consumers pay for personal, auto and other loans. How fast that process will continue now that the U.S. central bank’s first rate cut is in the books is unclear, in particular whether easing credit conditions will become tangible to consumers in ways that shift attitudes about the economy before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Recent surveys suggest that while the pace of price increases has declined dramatically, the public’s mood is still marred by nearly two years of high inflation — even if falling rates signal that chapter of recent economic history is closed and will begin making it cheaper for people to borrow money. “My daughter has been trying to buy a home for years and cannot,” said Julie Miller, who works at her son’s electrical company in Reno, Nevada, a state where home prices rose fast during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of seven key battleground states in the presidential race, Nevada is being aggressively contested by Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican challenger. If housing costs are vexing Miller’s daughter, higher prices at Taco Bell have caused Miller to cut back on…Read more