I have railed in the past about the uselessness of the consumer confidence index. It basically gives us a measure of where the economy is today and tells nothing about where it will be tomorrow. For this reason, I was not especially impressed by the news that the index had fallen slightly last month. It is worth noting that the drop was driven by a substantial decline in the current conditions index, from 128.3 to 124.7. This component, which does tell us about how people are feeling today, tells us that people are becoming more pessimistic, in spite of the drop in gas prices.
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