Buying Our Way Out of the Problem

“Upbeat spending is particularly remarkable because it seems to contradict downbeat consumer sentiment. Long-running gauges of consumers’ moods are running near historic lows, weighed down by high gasoline prices, subdued hiring and contentious politics. Lousy consumer moods once correlated with lower consumer spending, but since the pandemic, sentiment has increasingly decoupled from spending and other economic indicators.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Mighty American Consumer Is Crashing Through Inflation and Driving Growth.