Jim Hamilton (with others) answers the question in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
YES: Consumer sentiment is a useful economic indicator, though it is not the most important or reliable economic measure to which we should be paying attention. When coupled with the stock-market correction and heightened measures of policy uncertainty, the fall in consumer sentiment definitely concerns me. The Trump administration should take this as a warning flag to be much more cautious about the hornet’s nest of tariffs and retaliations that it has stirred up.
