"Sapping of Confidence" Nails It;
Consumer Confidence Nears its Low

Jan. 20, 2009 — -- As if to underscore the new president's challenges, consumer confidence dropped this week to within a point of its lowest in 23 years – plain evidence of the "sapping of confidence across our land" Barack Obama described in his inaugural address.

In weekly ABC News polling since 1985, no president has started his administration with consumer views at a lower mark.

Click here for pdf with charts and data table.

The ABC News Consumer Comfort Index stands at -53 on its scale of +100 to -100, breaking out of a holding pattern to drop 4 points this week. Its lowest was -54 on Dec. 1; the previous low for an incoming president, -37 as Bill Clinton took office in 1993.

Among the components of the CCI, 95 percent of Americans now rate the economy as not good or poor, the most on record, 76 percent call it a bad time to spend money and 58 percent rate their own finances negatively, matching the worst for that measure.

Expectations are grim as well: Sixty-two percent think the economy's getting even worse.

Obama focused on the economy in his address, calling it "badly weakened"; the Federal Reserve's quarterly "Beige Book" report last week filled in the details: poor retail sales, faltering real estate markets, tightening credit standards and a bleak job market.

Along with sagging confidence, there are related public concerns. In a separate ABC News/Washington Post poll this week, seven in 10 Americans expressed concern about their family's financial situation, up 10 points since September, and 68 percent said they've been hurt financially by the recession.

Obama may have some leeway: Sixty-three percent said he's off to a "good start" with the economy and 72 percent think his recovery program will improve it. But the public's patience is an open question; economic hard times have eroded the popularity of previous presidents fairly rapidly.

INDEX – In the CCI, as noted, just 5 percent rate the economy positively – a record low, 10 points below the 2008 average and 34 points below the long-term average. It's been in single digits for 11 straight weeks, the longest stretch since 1992.