According to the numbers released by the Commerce Department, the US economy experienced a downshift in economic growth during the first quarter of this year. From banks to burger joints, consumers are watching their pennies and banks are keeping a tight grip on credit with 10 rate hikes in the last 14 months to bring prices under control. While the annual rise in the gross domestic product was 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, it dropped to 1.1 percent in the first quarter of this year which means economic activity is significantly losing steam. On the other hand, consumer spending has posted the biggest gains in the last two years specifically among long-lasting manufactured goods such as cars and trucks as well as recreational goods. Meanwhile, fear of a mild economic recession continues to rise with an aggressive series of rate hikes and consumers becoming more frugal in their spending. The CEO of McDonald’s claimed that despite fast food sales being solid, consumers are more cautious with their orders. In other words, adding fries isn’t normalized anymore.   

   Lower-income families are feeling the pinch of high prices and it is very likely that they are relying on costly credit cards to stay afloat. However, the good news is that the Federal Reserve claimed that borrowing costs are currently where they need to be to eventually balance down prices again. Meanwhile, the job market is actually doing pretty well with unemployment rates as low as 3.5 percent last month. However, there still are signs of stress on the job market as well such as layoffs inching up and job growth in March being the slowest in over two years. Profitable companies such as McDonald’s cutting back on their white-collar workforce has been sending messages of social insecurity as well.