Over the past few months, both of the more important measures of consumer confidence has been steadily dropping. Somehow, there was a nice pickup in the most recent report.

Why? Simple…The Stock market was up over the previous month. Since there have been no other important shifts in employment or global economic trends, that seems to be the only reason for the move.

Obviously, Bernanke and Gang know this well and will continue to do what they can to inspire the wealth effect.