Consumer Sentiment Stabilizes In Latest High Point University Poll

A new poll of North Carolinians shows consumer sentiment remains relatively high among the state's residents. But that's a stark contrast with how they feel about the national political landscape.

But first, what is consumer sentiment? Generally speaking, it's an index of questions designed to measure how confident people are in the economy and in their personal financial situation.

High Point University's survey recently asked people a variety of questions about their finances, feelings on politics, and other things.

The result? In broad strokes, North Carolinians are feeling consistently better about the U.S. economy than in years past.

But Brian McDonald with the High Point Poll says some interesting things happen when you contrast people's financial optimism with the relative pessimism they feel about current politics.

“Seventy percent of the people we surveyed said the country might be going in the wrong direction, and about 55 percent had a disapproval rating of the president,” McDonald said. “Yet, when we did the consumer sentiment index, we had this stabilizing number that was on the high end.”

In short, people seem to be separating their financial outlook from their political feelings. What that means in concrete terms, though, we'll have to wait and see.