It’s been over six months since we visited the subject of consumer confidence, and since the most recent data was released this week, I thought it might be a good time to update our interactive chart again. You can drag the time sliders below the chart to view data going all the way back to 1998.
Nice little spike there between October and December, but January fell back off again, and the present situation index still site below where it was in late 2008. If you zoom all the way out to 1998 on the chart above, it’s interesting to note that this is by far the longest the present situation index has been lower than the expectations index. The only other time that has happened since 1998 was in mid-2002, but by mid-2004 the two had already flipped back around. This time it’s been over three years and counting since the two inverted, and they’re still nearly 40 points apart.
It has been, and will continue to be a long slog.