The improvement in consumers' mood suggests that business activity and labor market activity will continue to pick up over the next several months.

Especially in this tight labor market,

Much of the improvement in confidence can be attributed to the resiliency of the economy post-Katrina and the recent declines in fuel prices.

We've started to see a gradual improvement in the labor market, and that will slowly feed through to consumer spending and boost services more widely.

Given the continued improvement in labor and wage conditions of late and the likelihood that that will be sustained, consumer spending is most likely to lead the current economic growth until the present cycle ends.

Whatever we do will be a massive improvement to what we have now.