 Life session, a term being used to characterize the disconnect between the economy's overall strength and its perceived weakness among consumers. According to TransUnion, concerns about inflation and interest rates are now at a two-year high. The consumer price index increased 3.3% in May relative to a year earlier. Prices are still rising. They're just growing at a slower pace than they had been. Higher inflation, coupled with the Federal Reserve's 11 rate hikes in 2022, since 2022, have hit working-class Americans especially hard.