This is Planet Money from NPR.
Consumer sentiment is not doing great right now.
It is close to its lowest point in half a century.
Americans are, on average, not optimistic about the health of the economy.
They don't feel great about their jobs, their personal finances.
And when consumers don't feel hopeful about the economy, we usually do this one thing.
We save more.
and stop spending as much.
You can see it in the data when consumer sentiment is low, consumer spending slows down.
Consumer spending and consumer sentiment are like buddies that go everywhere together.
Yes, but Sarah, these buddies, something strange is happening to their friendship.
They're drifting apart.
Yeah, consumer sentiment is like sad in his sweats, on the couch, doing nothing.
Well, okay, yeah, but consumer spending is out there living it up.
spending untold amounts of money out all hours of the night at the club?
She sure is.
And when Deeron Patke, an economist at the Boston Fed, saw this rift?
I mean, it's mostly bafflement, right?
We see these two numbers, which are significant measures of barometers of economic activity,
moving in ways that look discordant with each other.