I wonder if there's any historical data back to the late 90s, and how much might be driven by anticipation of future economic conditions. I know at my work the

I wonder if there's any historical data back to the late 90s, and how much might be driven by anticipation of future economic conditions. I know at my work there's a sense of---not quite despair, but---waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even though the recession is officially over, the whole system still seems fragile. I'm sure there's other factors at play too, but I feel like at a macro scale the economy is towards the base of a society's pyramid of needs. It's a proxy for availability to food, shelter, etc. James Carville said it best: "it's the economy, stupid". Looking at the CCI[1], although it's recovered a bit since 2008, it's below historical levels. IMO, while there's plenty of other issues, it makes sense to address the more fundamental ones first. But I don't have any solutions---just my two cents. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_confidence_index#/media/File%3AU.S._Consumer_Confidence_Index.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_confidence_index#/m...