Consumer Confidence Drops To Recession Levels

As if you didn’t know, American consumers didn’t like the nonsense over extending the debt limit. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers reported consumer sentiment fell to 55.7 in August and has fallen 25% during the past three months, the second largest decline on record. As Reuters reported, the index has only been lower in three other surveys: April and May 1980 and November ’08.

The release accompanying the report put it this way: “The majority of households reported worsened finances, expected no income gains and were more likely to anticipate a rising unemployment rate during the year ahead.”

Richard Curtain, the research group’s chief economist, said “The recent surge in pessimism was due to lost confidence in the ability of government to enact policies that would counteract the growing threat of a renewed recession.” Enough said.