Economics
Morning Consult/Axios Inequality Index: February 2024
Report summary
Key Takeaways
- The Morning Consult / Axios Inequality Index remained essentially unchanged in February at 6.7%, slightly above the 6.6% reading in January. Both values in 2024 remain above the series’ long-term average of 6.4%.
- The moderate increase in February was driven by upticks in three of the four inputs. Low-income adults continue to experience financial vulnerability at elevated rates even as middle-income adults increasingly managed to stash away savings or cut back on expenses.
- Consumer sentiment was the outlier in February, narrowing across the income spectrum as the Index of Consumer Sentiment among high income adults fell slightly.
About the author
John Leer leads Morning Consult’s global economic research, overseeing the company’s economic data collection, validation and analysis. He is an authority on the effects of consumer preferences, expectations and experiences on purchasing patterns, prices and employment.
John continues to advance scholarship in the field of economics, recently partnering with researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland to design a new approach to measuring consumers’ inflation expectations.
This novel approach, now known as the Indirect Consumer Inflation Expectations measure, leverages Morning Consult’s high-frequency survey data to capture unique insights into consumers’ expectations for future inflation.
Prior to Morning Consult, John worked for Promontory Financial Group, offering strategic solutions to financial services firms on matters including credit risk modeling and management, corporate governance, and compliance risk management.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy with honors from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in economics and management studies (MEMS) from Humboldt University in Berlin.
His analysis has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Economist and more.
Follow him on Twitter @JohnCLeer. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected]
