The cost of money is part of the cost of living

As the US economy bounced back from the post-pandemic inflation surge, consumer sentiment remained depressed even though unemployment was low, and inflation was falling. This confounded economists, who historically rely on these two variables to gauge how consumers feel about the economy. We propose that borrowing costs, which grew at rates they had not reached in decades, do much to explain this gap. The cost of money is not currently included in traditional price indexes, indicating a disconnect between the measures favored by economists and the effective costs borne by consumers. We show that the lows in US consumer sentiment that cannot be explained by unemployment and official inflation are strongly correlated with borrowing costs and consumer credit supply. Concerns over borrowing costs, which have historically tracked the cost of money, were at their highest levels since the Volcker-era. We then develop alternative measures of inflation that include borrowing costs and can account for almost three-quarters of the gap in US consumer sentiment in 2023.