Consumer Confidence All-Time High

I was out shopping yesterday with my wife at the local Home Depot around 11:00 in the morning, and I was stunned at how crowded it was. There were dozens of work crews lined up and loading their vans with lumber, tile, piping and other equipment for both regular construction and private DIY projects. Also, local nurseries had literally DUMPED tomato plants, squash plants, flowers, mums, and scores of other plants, and the prices were outstanding.

Everyone was loading up on springtime goodness and carting the flowers home, and as we drove away, I remarked to my wife about how great our economy seemed to be doing, and that I had never seen such activity at Home Depot before.

Today, a report came out about the consumer confidence index. Despite all of the predictions of doom and gloom over the rising cost of gasoline, Americans are enjoying what appears to be a boom. People are buying things for their homes and businesses, prices are still low, and there is a shortage of available workers because of such low unemployment.

From Reuters here:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence in the economy reached a four-year high in April as better job prospects temporarily offset unease over rising gasoline prices, according to data released on Tuesday.

In addition, sales of existing homes rose at a pace faster than expected in March….

Other economic data showed consumer spending was stronger in the third week in April than in the same week last year, aided by a late Easter holiday weekend and a spring clothes shopping spree in some parts of the country.

The strength in consumer confidence was especially surprising in view of the recent jump in gasoline prices.

“The consensus had been expecting a fall due to the recent spike in energy prices, but it appears that the firm labor market and improving incomes, plus the positive effects of rising equity markets are more than offsetting this for now,” said James Knightly, economist at ING Economics.

Much of this boom is due to Bush’s tax cuts, and these cuts should be made permanent. Also, this information should be trumpeted in all of the newspapers, but the Press is loathe to give Bush credit for anything, especially for turning the country around after the devastating attacks against our economy on 9/11/2001.