The ABCNEWS/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index now stands at -22 on its scale of +100 to -100, down four points from last week, down nine points in three weeks and down 19 points since reaching its recent high of -3 in mid-January.

The index measures public views of current economic conditions. Expectations for the future, tracked separately, are also glum: Pessimism about the economy’s direction has jumped 15 points in two months, to its highest since just before the start of the war in Iraq a year ago.

The souring numbers come at a time of near-record gasoline prices (up 20 cents a gallon since the start of the year), continued weakness in the job market and a slumping stock market (the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a three-month low Monday). The Federal Reserve, in a bid to help bolster the economy, voted Tuesday to keep short-term interest rates at a 45-year low. The Fed, in a statement, noted that “new hiring has lagged.”

Growing economic discontent comes at an inopportune time for George W. Bush — in the midst of a re-election campaign. Disapproval of the president’s handling of the economy was at 59 percent — a career high — in a recent ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll.

 INDEX — The index, based on current ratings of the national economy, buying climate and personal finances, started to rally in late November and reached a 21-month high two months ago. The slide since then has included a seven-point, one-week drop in mid-February, matching the 18-year-old index’s biggest-ever one-week fall.

Positive views of the economy are down 15 points in two months and 11 points off their long-term average; just 29 percent now say the economy’s in good shape, the fewest since November. Thirty-five percent call it a good time to buy things, down eight points in six weeks to the lowest since May. And 53 percent say their own finances are OK, a four-month low.

 EXPECTATIONS — As noted, expectations for the future are worsening as well. Just 23 percent of Americans say the economy is getting better, six points fewer than last month and down 11 points since January. Forty-two percent say it’s getting worse — a 15-point gain over two months and the highest level of pessimism about the economy’s direction since last March 16, just before bombs started falling on Baghdad. Thirty-four percent say the economy is staying the same.

 TREND — At -22, the ABC/Money index is 13 points below its long-term average, -9. It inched above average at the start of the year before the record-matching Feb. 15 plunge. (The last two times the index fell so steeply, in 1990 and 2001, recessions followed.) The current rating is far from the record high, +38 in January 2000 and still well above its all-time low, -50 in February 1992.

 GROUPS — Confidence, as usual, is higher among better-off Americans. The index is +8 among higher-income people while -68 among those with the lowest incomes (matching a 12-month low). It’s -7 among college graduates while -53 among high school dropouts, -19 among whites but -32 among blacks and -13 among men while -28 among women.

The index is +31 among Republicans. But, in a possible sign of trouble for Bush, it’s nearly as bad among independents (-31) as among Democrats (-43).

ABCNEWS/Money Index
Today	-22
Last week	-18
Two months ago	-3
2003 Low	-28
2003 Average	-19
2002 Average	-11
2001 Average	+4
Jan. 16, 2000	+38 Record high
2000 average	+29 Best full year
1992 average	-44 Worst full year
Feb. 9, 1992	-50 Record low
Average since 12/85	-9

Here's a closer look at the three components of the ABCNEWS/Money index:

 NATIONAL ECONOMY — Twenty-nine percent of Americans rate the nation’s economy as excellent or good; it was 31 percent last week. The highest was 80 percent on Jan. 16, 2000. The lowest was 7 percent in late 1991 and early 1992.

 PERSONAL FINANCES — Fifty-three percent rate their own finances as excellent or good; it was 55 percent last week. The best was 70 percent on Aug. 30, 1998, and matched in January 2000. The worst was 42 percent on March 14, 1993.

 BUYING CLIMATE — Thirty-five percent say it’s an excellent or good time to buy things; it was 37 percent last week. The best was 57 percent on Jan. 16, 2000. The worst was 20 percent in fall 1990.

 METHODOLOGY — The ABCNEWS/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index represents a rolling average based on telephone interviews with a random sample of about 1,000 adults nationwide each month. This week’s results are based on 1,000 interviews in the month ending March 14, 2004, and have an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points. The expectations question was asked of 500 respondents March 3-14; that result has a 4.5-point margin of error. Field work was conducted by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

The ABCNEWS/Money index is derived as follows: The negative response to each index question is subtracted from the positive response to that question. The three resulting numbers are then added and divided by three. The index can range from +100 (everyone positive on all three measures) to -100 (all negative on all three measures). The survey began in December 1985.

Previous ABCNEWS polls can be found in our Poll Vault.