Consumer confidence does not reflected Wall Street woes

The Conference Board consumer confidence number came out this morning with a slight downturn. http://www.conference-board.org/economics/ConsumerConfidence.cfm

There are two major take-aways from this data. First, the confidence number does reflect the most recent information on consumer thoughts. Albeit a small delay, the information is collected through the 22^nd. This provided enough time to include the credit debacle in consumer views. Given the high level of uncertainty about the market, it may have been difficult for consumers to properly assess the impact on their situation, yet it is surprising that the decline was relatively mild. Confidence has been stable for most of 2007. The credit crunch has centered on the sub-prime market and real estate. This is an issue that should hit home to all consumers, yet the fall in the August numbers does not reflect the housing problems. There have been some much larger past declines which were not associated with recessions. This will give the Fed some reason to pause about taking serious action before their September meeting.