If the President caught a break with the public after 9/11, this time the public just isn't buying it. From Reuters:
U.S. consumer confidence plummeted to a 13-year low in early September, battered by record high gasoline prices and the full force of Hurricane Katrina, a report showed on Friday.It's encouraging to see that the public gets it and is holding the President accountable for failed leadership, let's just hope that we don't end up in a recession as a result.
Separate data showed the U.S. current account deficit, the broadest measure of U.S. trade with the rest of the world, narrowed in the second quarter but remained at levels seen as unsustainable over the long term.
The University of Michigan's closely-watched consumer sentiment index fell to 76.9 in September from 89.1 in August, far below Wall Street forecasts and the 81.8 hit after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
The current conditions dropped to the lowest level since December 2003 while the expectations index plummeted to the lowest since February 1992.
"If these declines were part of the normal economic cycle we would now call for a recession in the United States. But they aren't; the index is responding to a shock, and we expect it quickly to rebound," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
The result was similar to trends in other consumer surveys as well as a string of major polls showing waning support for the Bush administration's economic policies.
"I think there's probably also a degree of loss of confidence in the government," said David Sloan, economist at 4CAST Ltd. in New York.
