Nick Timiraos, a Wall Street Journal reporter known as the "mouthpiece of the Federal Reserve", wrote that the University of Michigan consumer survey showed a surge in inflation expectations. One-year inflation expectations jumped from 5.0% to 6.7%, the highest level since 1981, and four consecutive months of abnormal increases of 0.5 percentage points or more. Expectations for long-term inflation rose across the board among Democrats, Republicans and independents, with independents rising particularly sharply in April to 4.4% (previously 4.1%). Consumer sentiment is now even lower than the lows reached during the Biden presidency when oil prices and inflation soared.