Confidence has been soaring on the wings of rising incomes, low inflation, low interest rates and plentiful jobs. The U.S. economy so far seems to have escaped contagion from the Asian and Russian economic crises. Personal income is up.
Interest rates are down.
Consumer prices for goods and services rose at an annual rate of just 1.6 percent though last November, a 12-year low, and overall inflation is its lowest since 1965. Unemployment is a mere 4.3 percent, a 28-year low. The stock market's gyrations seem to have less influence on consumer confidence than these factors. Some consumer confidence polls include, or are based on, measures of consumer expectations for the future economy. The three resulting numbers are then added and divided by three.