United States consumers are doing worse entering into the third year of President Joe Biden's presidency as personal debt soars, a new Morning Consult study revealed.
In the State of Consumer Banking & Payments report for the first half of 2023, researchers found rising interest rates, increased inflation, and the banking crisis have made Americans feel worse off.
Financial security across all income levels dropped this year, including 0.86 less for those with an income under $50,000 per year, 0.59 less for those making $50,000 to $99,000 annually, and 2.45 underwater for $100,000 and above.
Although high-income earners were most affected, the report detailed that younger consumers were also disproportionately burdened with personal debt.
For example, millennials were more likely than any other generation to report having debt related to credit cards, automobiles, mortgages, and educational and medical loans.
Breitbart noted the across-the-board decrease in financial well-being could largely be attributed to the energy crisis, which has driven up inflation and recently led to the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike.
However, the Federal Open Market Committee said in March that future increases are not assured and would depend largely on incoming data.
"The committee will closely monitor incoming information and assess the implications for monetary policy," the FOMC stated.
"The committee anticipates that some additional policy firming may be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time," the panel added.