Even with today's stronger-than-expected reading for September, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index has not kept pace with increases in many traditional indicators of economic well-being, and it remains signicantly below where it was prior to the financial crisis.
Among the possible reasons for the differential:
Regardless of which, if any, of these explanations is correct, the fact that consumer sentiment remains below where it should be, historically speaking, means that it's (still) not time to be betting on the return of the American consumer.
Michael J. Panzner