Americans, hit by inflation, are feeling worse financially – especially parents

livemint.com:

WASHINGTON–The share of U.S. adults who said they were doing OK financially fell last year, underscoring one of the key hurdles to President Biden’s re-election hopes. The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that 72% of respondents to its annual survey of financial well-being said they were “doing at least OK" in 2023.

That was down from 73% the prior year and 78% in 2021, when households were flush with cash from pandemic stimulus checks. The decline in self-reported well-being was especially pronounced among parents living with kids under the age of 18. Among that group, only 64% said they were doing all right financially, down from 69% in 2022 and 75% in 2021.

By many measures, the U.S. economy has rarely been better in the past half-century than it is now. Unemployment has been below 4% for 27 months, the longest stretch in more than a half-century.

Consumer spending rose a brisk 5.8% in March from a year earlier – and was up roughly 30% from prepandemic levels. The S&P 500 stock index is near record highs. Yet Biden trails former President Donald Trump in both national polls and in key battleground states.

A CNN poll in mid-April showed that voters have an increasingly rosy view of Trump’s presidency. Fifty-five percent said they view the former president’s four-year term as a success, up from 41% when he left office in 2021 and well above the 39% who rate Biden’s presidency as a success. The disconnect has puzzled economists for months.