Free Republic

OMAHA, Neb. — Despite positive economic signs in nine Midwest and Plains states, fewer of the supply managers surveyed for the July Business Conditions Index are confident about the regional recovery. In the Mid-America report released today, the July confidence index dropped to 54.8, its lowest level since February 2009. The overall index dipped to 60.8 from 62.5 in June and 64.2 in May. The report uses a collection of indexes that range from zero to 100, and any score above 50 suggests economic growth in the next three to six months. The report is overseen by Creighton University economist...

Uncertainty about the economy continued to shake consumer confidence in July, pushing a key measure of morale to the lowest level since February. The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped for a second straight month, to 50.4 in July from June's upwardly revised level of 54.3. July's reading was lower than expected. Economists had forecast the index to have ticked down to 51 in July from 52.9 in June, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com. "Consumer confidence faded further in July as consumers continue to grow increasingly more pessimistic about...

Consumer gloom in July reached its highest level since the recession was near the bottom amid fears that the expansion remains too weak to create many jobs, according to the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index out Tuesday. Meanwhile, a gauge of small-business confidence retreated in June to a level typical of a "weak or recession-mired economy" as the sales outlook deteriorated sharply, the National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday.

Ask any housing expert worth their salt why home prices are falling again and you’ll likely hear a litany of reasons, all of which sound completely plausible: tax credit expiration, weak job market, high inventory levels, shadow supply, strategic defaults, negative equity, and a tight lending environment. This sort of analysis isn’t wrong, per se, but all too often discussions about home prices and the real estate market ignore the most fundamental of all economic indicators: confidence. Shifts in confidence are closely tied to movements in the stock market. And, as I've written previously, the stock market is the most...

Americans, worried about jobs and the sluggish economic recovery, are having a relapse in confidence, causing a widely watched index to tumble in June and raising concerns about consumer spending in the critical months ahead. The Conference Board, a private research group based in New York, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped almost 10 points to 52.9, down from the revised 62.7 in May. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been expecting the reading to dip slightly to 62.8.

NEW YORK – Americans, worried about jobs and the sluggish economic recovery, are having a relapse in confidence, causing a widely watched index to tumble in June and raising concerns about consumer spending in the critical months ahead. The Conference Board, a private research group based in New York, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped almost 10 points to 52.9, down from the revised 62.7 in May. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been expecting the reading to dip slightly to 62.8. June's reading marked the biggest drop since February, when the index fell 10 points. The index...

I guess we really shouldn't be surprised. After all, this is what Obama and his team of globalists wanted, wasn't it? It's pretty much what he promised his hate-America base. If anyone was listening, they would have heard it. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past". He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper. He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction. Mr Geithner was...

NOORVIK, Alaska, April 21, 2010 – A joint medical team recently deployed to a remote village in northern Alaska, where earning trust often is the first step to getting patients through the door. Air Force Maj. Emily Cerreta consults Laura Ballot, mother of 23-month-old Hikerr Snyder, during his well-baby checkup April 14, 2010, in Noorvik, Alaska. Cerreta is a family nurse practitioner from the 433rd Airlift Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and is in Alaska for Operation Arctic Care, a joint medical training exercise. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jack Braden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the U.S. government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century... Only 22 percent of Americans say they trust the government "just about always" or "most of the time,"... Americans' trust in the federal government has been on a steady decline from a high of 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration in 1958, when the "trust" question was first posed in a national survey.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America's "Great Compromiser" Henry Clay called government "the great trust," but most Americans today have little faith in Washington's ability to deal with the nation's problems. Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don't trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills, the survey found. The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities...

Two senior congressional Republicans on Sunday declined to express confidence in Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele after revelations that the RNC spent $2,000 entertaining potential contributors at a sex-themed nightclub. The controversy over Steele's leadership of the Republican National Committee comes as the party is hoping to seize back control of the U.S. Congress from President Barack Obama's Democrats in November congressional elections. But Steele's stewardship of the RNC is threatening to distract Republicans at a pivotal time. Asked whether Steele should step down, Senator Jon Kyl, the Senate's number two Republican, said on the "Fox News Sunday" program:...

I just heard on the news that the Consumer Confidence Index was up for March at 52.5, up 6.1. I don't really follow this or understand it, but I usually notice whether it is up or down. Then they added that it is normally around 90! WHAT? I had not ever heard that before. I thought I would look into it a little bit. Wikipedia good enough for my casual inquiry. "The Consumer Confidence Index was started in 1967 and is benchmarked to 1985=100. This year was chosen because it was neither a peak nor a trough. The Index is...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic leaders in the Congress voiced confidence on Sunday they will have the votes, possibly within a couple of months or so, to pass landmark legislation to overhaul the healthcare system. Facing a wall of Republican opposition, Democrats have said they may resort to a rarely used procedural tactic, .. reconciliation, to win approval on purely partisan votes. President Barack Obama, who hosted a White House summit last week that produced no sign of bipartisan compromise, is to announce this week how he would like Democrats to proceed on a top legislative priority. "Our members, everyone of...

he IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index rose 2 points in January to 48.8, the first gain in four months but the sub-50 reading still indicates pessimism. Yet the six-month outlook gauge shot up 5.1 points to 51.8, the first upbeat reading since September. “The defining thing is going to be jobs, jobs, jobs. There is no shying away from that,” said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD’s polling partner. “We have a new year and people are hoping that the economy will continue to go, and they’ve also been told to wait for mid-2010 for...

Consumer Confidence, 2010: Off To A Less Gloomy StartJust 9 Percent of Americans Rate the Economy Positively Analysis by Peyton M. Craighill Jan. 5, 2010 Consumer confidence is off to a less-awful start in 2010, with the ABC News Consumer Comfort Index rising this week to its best in 16 months. Consumer Comfort Index Chart (/ABC News)Better is far from good: The CCI stands at -41 on its scale of +100 to -100, far lower than its 24-year average of -12, much less its record highs a decade ago. But it's its best since September 2008, up 10 points since...

Consumer Confidence Grows Last Update: 29-Dec-09 10:25 ET The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose in December to 52.9 from 50.6 in November, which was just below the consensus estimate of 53.0. The jump in confidence mirrors December's boost to the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index. The details of the report are somewhat puzzling. The entire increase in the index was due to the Consumer Expectations index rising from 70.3 to 75.6 in December. The Present Situation Index actually declined from 21.2 to 18.8 in December. Given that the present situation index is highly correlated with the current employment...

“Fear Gauge” At Its Lowest In Over A Year By Addison Wiggin 12/24/09 Baltimore, Maryland – 1) As we approach the end of the decade, we take stock of The Daily Reckoning’s beloved “Trade of the Decade.” You know it by heart, right? “Buy gold on dips, sell stocks on rallies.” Bloomberg News has tallied up and reported the satisfying results. “A $100 investment in gold would now be more than $380,” Bloomberg calculates, “while the same sum in commodities would have grown to about $357, according to the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Enhanced Total Return Index.” How will this...

Campaigning is not being President...

The Reuters/U. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment November report just hit the wire and the results are not looking good. Sentiment fell during early November to the weakest level in three months due to a weak economy and lagging job market. The index of consumer expectations fell to 63.7 in early November from 68.6 in October. Reuters: "Confidence tumbled in early November due to the grim financial realities faced by consumers as well as weaker economic prospects for the year ahead -- importantly, the decline in confidence was already in place before the announced increase in the unemployment rate to 10.2...

U.S. consumers turned decidedly more pessimistic in October, according to a report released Tuesday, with households increasingly worried about job prospects. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index fell to 47.7 this month, from a revised 53.4 in September, which was originally reported as 53.1. The current month's reading was well below economists' projections of 53.2, according to a survey conducted by Dow Jones Newswires. The downturn in consumer confidence at this stage of the recovery is to be expected, as it has occurred in previous recoveries (please see chart below), and does not...