American Economy,  Polling

Gallup Poll Watch: U.S. Economic Confidence Looks Bleak

According to the latest Gallup Poll.

Americans continue to have both a negative view of current U.S. economic conditions and a bleak outlook for the U.S. economy’s future, resulting in a Gallup Economic Confidence Index reading of -28 for the week of Aug. 13-19 — basically unchanged from the previous week.

Americans’ economic confidence has been low for most of the summer so far, with weekly averages between -23 and -29 since June 11. Prior to that, Americans had been somewhat more optimistic, and the weekly average of -16 in late May represented the highest confidence reading of the year. The -29 reached in January and again in late July represent the low points of the year so far. At the same time, Americans’ confidence was significantly lower in the latter part of 2011 than it is now.

Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index consists of two measures — one assessing current economic conditions and the other assessing the nation’s economic outlook.

I don’t see any burst of economic confidence out here in California. In fact, the news is filled with noise of impending business troubles and municipal bankruptcies.

So, what does this mean?

President Obama and other incumbent POLS don’t have much positive economic momentum to run for re-election.