Dovel Wilcox Call it a split personality. Consumers' confidence in their current finances is greater than their faith in the future. It's a dicey time for economic forecasters.
Recent surveys make clear that consumers are plenty worried about the future.
It used to be just the concern of wealthy people. At the same time, paychecks are showing a nice bump-up, jobs are still plentiful, and sales of cars and homes have held up surprisingly well. Taken together, the softening in consumers' current assessment and the plunge in their expectations doesn't paint an encouraging picture. Never in the past 30 years has the index of consumer confidence fallen by as much as it has recently without being followed by a recession. Perhaps researchers there are taking into account that the recent drop in confidence is from extraordinarily high levels.