Mick Jagger has credited Charles Pierre Baudelaire for inspiring him to write “Sympathy for the Devil”. The French poet wove gorgeous verses around darker subjects that refuted mankind’s inherent kindness, his advocacy of the diabolical was pure allegation. As for the Rolling Stones, the song is a platform from which to present mankind’s atrocities from the devil’s point of view – to allow the devil himself to play devil’s advocate on history’s annals of tragedy. The controversial but undeniably timeless hit bridges from the trial and death of Jesus Christ to the Russian Revolution and World War II. The intense lyrics peak with Jagger demanding to know, “Sympathy for the Devil”.

A recent enlightening listen to this classic among rock classics reminded yours truly of the dangers of confirmation bias, the quest to validate one’s views by rejecting others’. After nearly a decade inside the Federal Reserve, one could only conclude that this contrarian-minded thinker would have been damagingly brainwashed to not bask in the clean light of skepticism.

Nevertheless, the dangers of deriving incomplete conclusions necessitates you play devil’s advocate to yourself from time to time. Caveat lector: this is purely an exercise in introspection. The writer’s full loss of faculties is not the conclusion you should draw at the end of this piece. So, now that we’ve set the stage, knowing said writer’s tongue is firmly in cheek, let’s channel our inner devil’s advocate. Shall we?

Our advocacy may as well start with the stalwart U.S. consumer, who we’ve all learned might take a body blow from time to time, but is never knocked out. The January release of retail sales was all it took to send those who’d temporarily jumped on the bearish bandwagon scurrying for their caves. Forget 2015’s Polar Vortex that made for easy comparables, the 3.4-percent gain over last year was still the best in a year. And December was revised up to boot. Isn’t it plain to see that the $140 billion de factor tax cut at the gas pump (which apparently kicks in with a long lag) and buoyant wages are finding their way into the real economy?

As for the strongest component of retail sales, it’s not only subprime loans that are behind the 6.9-percent growth in car sales over 2015. Super prime auto loan borrowers’ share of the pie is now on par with that of subprime borrowers – each now accounts for a fifth of car loan originations. What’s that, you say? Can’t afford that new set of wheels? Not to worry. Just lease. You’ll be in ample company — some 28 percent of last year’s car sales were made courtesy of leases, an all-time high. For bigger ticket items, anecdotal evidence suggests that while Gulf Stream sales have hit the skids, financing for yachts can still be had for two percent, a song in and of itself. So why not live a little?