by Ben Jennings, Lead Advisor, CFP®

Ben Jennings reflects on a historically low University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading and questions whether today truly warrants such pessimism. Drawing from Hans Rosling’s Factfulness, he explains how gap thinking and negativity bias distort perception, making the world feel worse than it is. He illustrates this with memories of 1970s gas shortages, noting that despite lingering assumptions about foreign oil dependence, the U.S. is now a major net crude oil exporter. His main advice is to curate information: consume less attention-driven media and read longer-form books that provide history, context, and perspective for better life and portfolio decisions overall.