Collapse of Confidence

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell in June to 50.4. It has been free-falling for the past year. Only four times in history (since 1967) has it been this low. Previous lows have been in February 1992 (47.3 during the recession of George Bush the First) and May 1980 (50.1 during Jimmy Carter's last year).

Worst still is the Expectations Index which isolated the questions in the survey that look forward six months. The Expectations Index reached an all-time low in June of 41.0. That is below the level reached in December 1973 because of the OPEC oil embargo and Richard Nixon. Not only is the economy in bad shape but people expect it to get a lot worse before it gets better.

As for Bush's fabled stimulus package...pfssssst.

Other sources: Bloomberg, Business Week