U.S. consumer confidence sank to a record low in June as a surge in gasoline prices to more than $4 a gallon and a jump in the unemployment rate helped torpedo a modest rebound in Americans’ outlook seen the previous month, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
Investor’s Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence said their IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index fell to 37.4 in June from 40.3 in May. A reading below 50 indicates pessimism among survey respondents.
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It was just the second reading ever below 40 in the 89 months since the survey’s inception.
June’s reading puts the index 28 percent below its lifetime average of 52.1, IBD/TIPP said in a statement.
is that fiction?
ask any seller at an art fair. this economy has sucked since 2000.
But what about the $ 600 rebate?
Somewhere in the distant corner of my mind is Bush about 5 years ago, when asked what he was going to do about the economy. His response of he has done some small change came across as a rant of “well what else do you expect me to do?”
I assume his current response is the same.
As as for the $4 a gallon gas which Bush couldn’t forsee even when asked about it by a reporter, he’s gone twice to his Saudi friends asking for more oil, and gotten dismissed.