00:00I'm looking at numbers that are better than expected and much better than the numbers we
00:06saw in the previous release. Well, it depends on how you consider much better. It's still at a
00:11record low of 49.8 for a final Michigan number. The estimate was 48.5. We were at 47.6.
00:20So it goes
00:21up a little bit, but it's still pretty low. The inflation expectations number does tick down to
00:274.7 from 4.8. That may be because in the last weeks or so that we're gathering this information,
00:34gasoline prices went down a little bit with the on and off stuff about the war. Five to 10 year
00:39is at 3.5, though, goes up from 3.4. So at this point, it's about status quo. Americans are
00:48not
00:48feeling very good about where the economy is. And I'm sure a lot of it has to do with what
00:54they pay
00:55when they go to the gas station. I know that you, Mitch, team is brilliant. And it's always
00:59interesting to look at this. But Mike, I'm always like, does it even matter? I mean, sentiment has
01:04been so depressed. But then retail sales beat. Earnings are strong. It feels like the correlation
01:09between these sentiment surveys with every year that passes just gets weaker with where the real
01:14economy is. You're right. It has not. Well, it's never been a good predictor of where sales are going
01:20to go. It's been more of a coincident indicator. Even that has broken down somewhat in recent
01:26months. We're going to get GDP next week with personal spending and consumer spending in that
01:33number. And that will also incorporate the service industries, which we didn't get in the retail
01:37sales. And so we'll see if consumers are hanging in there or not. They did pull back in the fourth
01:42quarter. So we'll see if people are still spending. You get tax refunds in the first quarter
01:49and into the beginning of the second quarter. So maybe that's boosted spending a little bit. But
01:53are people going to have to start cutting back because their gas bill is going up?
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