Call Me In Six Months

Through much of 2001, consumer confidence looked more like consumer obliviousness. People kept on spending freely even as every economic indicator but consumer spending was going down. For better or worse, they finally seem to have caught on that incomes are down (as a Census report confirmed last week), while the stock market’s decline has made the “wealth effect” a mere memory. In a new Ipsos Public Affairs/Cook Political Report poll, 48 percent of respondents said they now feel less comfortable making major purchases (like a home or car) than they did six months ago.