Consumer Confidence Nears Record Low

How's that Hopey-Changey thing workin out for ya?

Consumer confidence is within striking distance of its worst in weekly polls since late 1985 for the third straight week.

The ABC News Consumer Comfort Index stands at -52 on its scale of +100 to -100, 2 points from the lowest on Jan. 25. The index has spent the last three weeks below -50, territory it's seen only 14 times in over 1,220 weeks of polls, with eight of those coming this year alone.

Positive ratings of the buying climate dropped this week, down 4 points to 22 percent, matching the largest one-week drop ever. In 23 years of weekly polls it's fallen this far this fast only eight other times. The other two components of the index  ratings of the economy and personal finances  held near their historic lows.