Consumers Say 2022 Is the Worst Economy Ever

One of the biggest threats to markets fails a basic sanity check. The threat is that households are the most depressed they have been since the University of Michigan began its long-running Consumer Sentiment index in the 1950s. When consumers are worried about their finances and the economy, the danger is a self-fulfilling cut in spending that brings on a recession.

The sanity check: Really? Worse than when lines of cars waited for hours for fuel in a deep recession in 1974, if it was even available? Worse than when unemployment was almost double the current level and inflation in double digits in 1980, with interest rates at 14.5%? Worse than after the 9/11 attacks, or when the global banking system was on the brink of failure in 2008? Come on.