The advantage of hitting bottom is there's nowhere to go but up

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose a bit this month, after hitting an all-time low in October (the measure goes back to 1967). I don't know that it means all that much, but it is an indication of something that should start playing out more broadly in economic data releases--and perhaps injecting a touch of optimism into the national discourse--over the next year: When the comparables are bad enough, it gets a lot easier to beat them.