Consumer confidence is in the doldrums again. 

We are a flakey old society. They’ve seen something similar in America. Take a single confidence reading and you’d believe it’s the end of the world. 

But the metrics on jobs and spending defy the mood. 

Which would lead you to believe what people say and what people do are often different things. 

We are sitting at 80. It’s fallen 14 – that’s a lot. 100 or more is positive. We are far from positive. 

If it helps, I am positive. Could I find stuff to be negative about? Yes, I could. We all could, at any time, no matter what’s going on. 

But take spending. Data out this week from last month: it was up, and up a lot. Durables were up. Durables are things like sofas and fridges. Why would you buy a sofa if you are miserable? And yet we did. 

Oil this week is down. A lot. That money will go into café lunches and movie tickets. Things are getting better. 

I think it’s a “fear the worst” mentality that we suffer from. 

The food price stats yesterday, they are virtually normal. In other words, in the Reserve Bank band. No extra inflation from the war. 

The interest rate hikes that were going to be needed to tame the so-called runaway secondary costs landing on our beleaguered economy may not be needed. 

Now, the common line used is yes, some are doing it tough; no, we are not out of the woods – and all of that is true. 

But it isn’t as bad as most predicted. The facts cannot be denied unless you have a political agenda and it suits you to deny them. 

In other words, if you look on average at the facts, most people have work, most people are under financial control. The banks tell us this. Spending is up. We have some savings. And looking forward, the war is over – things will get better. 

The GDP today tells us what we were travelling like pre-war, and that was pretty good, thank you. 

So the facts do not equate to the 80 in confidence. 

Now be miserable if you want, it’s a free world. But I’m not, and I reckon I’m better for it.