Recently received a short list of questions in the mail from Nielsen Research. They appear related to their periodic consumer confidence surveys. As they included a gift dollar bill inside and many questions looked intriguing, I completed and mailed it back.
Here’s a few of the questions (roughly restated from memory) which may be of interest to investors - along with my answers. There were also some questions about education level, household income, political affiliation, etc. which I’ve omitted. Your responses to the sample questions are invited.
- How would you rate the overall economy at this time? 1. poor, 2. fair, 3. good, 4. excellent. (I selected #4)
- How would you rate the current employment picture in your area? 1. too few jobs, 2. just enough jobs, 3. plenty of jobs. (I selected #3.)
- Six months to a year from now from now where do you expect interest rates to be? 1. lower than today, 2. about the same, 3. higher than today. (I selected #3)
- Six months to a year from now do you expect the overall economy to be 1. better than today, 2. about the same, 3. worse than today (I selected #3 )
- Six months to a year from now do you expect the employment picture in your area to be 1. worse than today , 2. about the same, 3. better than today (I selected #1).
- At year’s end do you expect the financial health of the average person in your area to be 1. better, 2. about the same, 3. worse. I selected #3)
- At year’s end do you expect inflation to be: 1, about the same, 2. higher, 3. lower (I selected #2.)
- In which range will inflation be at year’s end? 1. 0-2%, 2. 3-4%. 3. 5-6%, 4. over 6%. (I selected #2)
- At year’s end do you expect the stock market to be 1. higher, 2. about unchanged, 3. lower (I selected #3.)
- What most influenced your outlook for consumer health and the economy going forward? (This required a fill-in.) I answered to the effect: “Deficits created by the the tax cut along with funding for the wall. Also - diminished public funding for health care for the most needy”.
