Consumer Confidence Falls Apart

Investing

Published: June 14, 2011 10:22 am

Gas prices, home prices, clothing prices, and unemployment have finally reached the point at which they have destroyed consumer confidence. Some economists believe that this happened weeks ago, but the confirmation grows by the day.

A new Gallup poll reports that:

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.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted on a weekly basis in 2011 from January to the week ending June 12 and in 2010 from January to the week ending June 13. For the week ending June 12, 2011, on the Gallup Daily tracking survey, interviews were conducted with a random sample of 3,538 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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