Bloomberg Surveillance · Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Meredith Whitney highlighted that persistent inflation, exacerbated by rising gas prices (estimated at a $900 increase per household due to the Iran war), is forcing both lower and higher-income consumers to make difficult choices and adjust spending. Even higher-income households are showing a divergence in credit card spending, indicating a psychological impact from elevated prices, with grocery spending remaining flat to negative.
“And for each household since the Iran war began, it's a $ 900 increase. That's almost a $ 40 increase from last week. So these are households that have no wiggle room.”
“And then the higher end, the super prime, the bank customers, and this is weekly data, you've seen since the beginning of the war, almost a one-for-one correlation with credit card debt outstandings, weekly data, and gas, the rise or fall of gas prices. Over the last three weeks, that correlation has diverged, which means even higher income households are making choices because of this stinging psychological effect of over $ 4 gas prices.”
“Grocery spend has been flat to negative this year.”