In this order on the program today consumers bank regulations and a long long walk from American

public media this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles I'm Kai, Rizdole is Tuesday today the 28th of March good as always to have

you along everybody.

A very quick check of the economic calendar tells us we're going to get an update from the

University of Michigan this week on consumer sentiments.

A quick check of economic news tells us that consumer sentiment or confidence or the general

consumer mood or however you would like to phrase it is one of the big puzzles of the

past couple of years.

Why do we feel so lousy about this economy despite a labor market that just keeps on going?

That's the question Catherine Rampellen or colleagues at the Washington Post set out

to answer Catherine is of course one of our Friday regulars.

Hey, Kai.

So tell us first of all what you did briefly and then more importantly what you found.

So there's been this puzzle essentially or at least I can I have considered it a puzzle.

Why has unemployment remained near record lows job growth keeps chugging along etc all

the things you just mentioned and yet consumers are so dour and depending on what media you

consume the answer is obviously the economy is great or obviously the economy is terrible

and yet you know the indicators are kind of all pointing in different directions.

So we set out to try to figure out how people are actually experiencing inflation what the

headline numbers might be missing.

For example if you just look at percentage changes in wage growth versus percentage changes

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