We don’t do a ton of obits, but there might not be a bigger story today than the passing of music, film and business icon Dolly Parton at 80 years old.

We did the numbers on Parton’s remarkable career and philanthropy at the end of today’s “Marketplace,” and we’ll have more soon. The other big news today is the escalating trade war between the U.S. and Canada. Turns out we rely on each other (ah-ah).

More on that below, but first let’s look ahead: How do you see your finances changing by February? — Tony Wagner, newsletter editor  

Consumer confidence fell this month, and more people said their personal financial situation is bad compared to July.

The Conference Board’s monthly survey asks people how they think the economy is doing now, versus what it’ll be like in six months. While the right-now answer didn’t change much — it picked up a bit, actually — the six-months-from-now answers got a lot more pessimistic.

Consumers' biggest concerns? Oil, war, food, and prices.

“We see this link between high inflation, declining real wages, and declining consumer confidence,” said Erik Hurst, an economics professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

He said that like most workers he’s studied, his salary has increased slower than the rate of inflation, which means he can buy less today than he could a year or two ago.

“And as we saw for the last few years, when real wages eroded, consumer confidence tends to erode with it,” Hurst said.

Which also helps explain why consumers are more worried about the future than right now.

“And even though they feel OK that their job is secure and their paychecks are coming in, it's buying them less — and that's the concern,” said Steve Odland, CEO of The Conference Board.

The Saudi-funded upstart LIV Golf hosted its last tournament of the year on Sunday, which could perhaps be its last tournament ever. The organization’s massive contracts and accusations of “sportswashing” the kingdom were novel, but the rise and fall of LIV Golf is not exactly an original story.

President Trump floated renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” today, as part of the ongoing trade war with Canada. “We don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump wrote on social media.

The White House has renamed so many things in the past 18 months, either to advance Trump’s personal brand or stick it to the so-called woke left. But as with the Gulf of Mexico, aka the Gulf of America, Trump can institute a name change within the federal government, but he can’t force others to adopt it. Ontario’s Premier is all too happy to remind Americans just how much business comes across those waters, too.