Outside the Beltway

U.S. Economic Confidence Worse Than It Was A Year Ago

Doug Mataconis · Tuesday, June 14, 2011 · 2 comments

Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index is at a lower point than it was a year ago:

PRINCETON, NJ — A sharp deterioration in the jobs outlook and six straight weeks of Wall Street declines sent Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy plunging to an average of -35 during the week ending June 12 — a decline of nine percentage points from two weeks ago, and six points worse than it was in the same week a year ago. Economic confidence is now approaching a 2011 weekly low.

Economic confidence reached its peak so far this year at -18 in February and then generally declined through the week ending April 24, when it reached -39 as gas prices surged and economic activity slowed. Economic confidence improved to -25 during the week after Osama bin Laden’s death and coincident with the “rally effect” in President Obama’s approval rating. However, Americans have become more pessimistic about the economy in early June, with confidence reverting to late April levels.

The reason is two-fold. First, more people rate the economy as “poor” than they have in more than a year:

And, second, the number of people who see the economy turning around any time soon is approaching its lowest point in the past two years:

Between the high gas prices, high unemployment, and slow economic growth, one can hardly blame the public for feeling this way, and its no surprise that the bellwether right track/wrong track poll is once again headed in the wrong direction. We’ve got a situation where neither political party is being honest with the American public about the problems facing us, and certainly not telling them that there are no easy solutions to the problems facing us. The result is political stagnation, and economic stagnation as well. What the political consequences of that will be remains to be seen, but the only thing I see in our current political environment is reason for cynicism and apathy.