I’m not sure where the reporter who covered the Consumer Confidence story for MSNBC bought their rose-colored glasses but I’m guessing they paid extra for an industrial strength prescription.

The Consumer Confidence indicator is notoriously volatile and, despite “soaring” has managed to bounce from anemic January readings so that now only two-thirds of the country thinks the economy is “poor or not so good,” which is up just a bit from “suicide watch” levels recorded earlier in the year.

I don’t know about you but that doesn’t make me want to pull money out of my mattress just yet.

The current reading “rocketed” from 26.9 last month to 39.2 this month. The 39.2 is compared to a base year of 1985 where the index was set to 100.

How bad are the consumer confidence readings?

In 1985 Amadeus won the Academy Award for Best Picture, total government spending was $946 (or about half of what the Feds have spent on GM in the last six months), violent crime was 20% higher than it is today and Lionel Richie won a Grammy for Best Album — which may partly explain the higher violent crime stats.

1985 sucked. And we’re nowhere near where consumer confidence was back then.

So, let’s not go getting all happy about a one month uptick in people’s moods.

Especially with the kind of reasoning that MSNBC is touting when they describe all the really great news this week:

Earlier Tuesday, a housing index showed that home prices dropped sharply in February, but for the first time in 25 months the decline was not a record — another sign the housing crisis could be bottoming.

Riiiiight. Or it could be a sign that people have lost so much of their net worth that they needed a whole month to calculate how many more years they have to push their retirement back before they start selling their houses again.

I’m not saying the glass isn’t half-full … I’m saying it’s half-empty and it’s got a hole in it.

Although I continue to hope we can look forward to the day when we’re all more statistically likely to be the victim of a violent crime and The Commodores release a new funk CD.

You know, the good old days.

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You know things will be getting better when funk makes a comeback — and Lionel Ritchie isn’t in the background…

Post from: EveryJoe

MSNBC Reports Consumer Confidence ‘Soars’