Consumer Confidence

Ben Bernanke has the answer. It is all your fault. Then he said something new: Consumers are depressed beyond reason or expectation. Oh, sure, there are reasons to be depressed, and the Fed chairman rattled them off: "The persistently high level of unemployment, slow gains in wages for those who remain employed, falling house prices, and debt burdens that remain high." However, Mr. Bernanke continued, "Even taking into account the many financial pressures that they face, households seem exceptionally cautious." Consumers, in other words, are behaving as if the economy is even worse than it…