Consumer Confidence

November 28 , 2023 . The Conference Board reported that consumer confidence rose 2.9 points in November to 102.0 after  having fallen 5.2 points in October.  Confidence has been bumping along at roughly this same level for a year. Chief Economist at the Conference...

Consumer Sentiment

November 22,, 2023 The final  estimate of consumer sentiment for November fell 2.5 points to 61.3 after declining 4.1 points in October.  In fact, this is the fourth consecutive decline in sentiment which reached a peak in July at 71.6. Surveys of Consumers Director...

Consumer Net Worth

September 12, 2023 .Consumer net worth rose $5.5 trillion in the second quarter.  That works out to an annualized rate of increase of 14.8% which follows an 8.2% increase in the first quarter.  Over the past year consumer net worth has increased 4.9%. The growth in...

Consumer Debt Service Ratio

February 15, 2022 Consumers debt service payments relative to income rose somewhat in the third quarter to 9.2%,  This series set a record low of 8.4% in the first quarter of last year,  This series stretches back to 1980 — 41 years ago!  Consumer debt in...

Consumer Loans

February 10, 2022 Consumer loans plunged in April and May of 2020 (the blue bars) as the economy stopped dead in its tracks following the imposition of very restrictive measures to combat the spread of the corona virus.  At the same time the federal government passed...