Consumer Metrics Institute Growth Index

Consumer Metrics Institute Growth Index 

Courtesy of Doug Short, based on the work of Rick Davis at Consumer Metrics Institute 

Note from dshort: Now updated through September 6th. I highly recommended the Institute’s public commentaries, especially Viewing the "Great Recession" in Hi-Def. Scroll down to the entry dated September 1. I’ve reprinted the concluding two paragraphs below as an inducement to read it in its entirety.

There probably hasn’t been two separate recessions in three years, simply one that has evolved in significant ways. But if this really is a "double dip" recession, then our data indicates that the "Great Recession" of 2008 was merely the precursor, and not the main event. It is this current dip that we should be really concerned about; the current contraction in consumer demand is about structural changes in consumer behavior, whereas the "first dip" was about short term loss of consumer confidence.

"This recession has been complex and constantly evolving in ways that policy makers have not been able to understand through their low resolution lenses. As a consequence their policy responses have been misguided, ineffective and wasteful. The Federal Reserve may be able to save the banking system by being the "lender of last resort", but it is powerless to change perhaps the one thing that John Maynard Keynes got right — and what he mischaracterized as a "Paradox of Thrift" — as over 100 million U.S. households become economic "loose cannons", acting exclusively in their own best interests in 100 million different ways.

The charts below focus on the ‘Trailing Quarter’ Growth Index, which is computed as a 91-day moving average for the year-over-year growth/contraction of the Weighted Composite Index, an index that tracks near real-time consumer behavior in a wide range of consumption categories. The Growth Index is a calculated metric that smooths the volatility and gives a better sense of expansions and contractions in consumption.

Click for a larger image

The 91-day period is useful for comparison with key quarterly metrics such as GDP. Since the consumer accounts for over two-thirds of the US economy, one would expect that a well-crafted index of consumer behavior would serve as a leading indicator. As the chart suggests, during the five-year history of the…