Consumer Confidence Continues to Fade

It should be interesting to see how holiday spending holds up in the weeks ahead now that consumer confidence is clearly fading, the latest evidence of this coming from this weekly Gallup survey. Though still  at one of the highest levels of the year, confidence is now at a post-election low, and, with the fiscal cliff debate now dominating the news cycle the recent trend is not likely to change until a deal is done. 

Consistent with the plunge in consumer sentiment last week as detailed here, the lower panel clearly shows that it is the long-term outlook that has Americans worried, that is, now that their attention is focused on the nation’s seemingly intractable budget woes rather than a looming election.