16 years ago. That would be 1992. Shame the current President Bush isn't on the ballot, so he can be properly crushed into a fine pink powder in November by any random Democrat. We have McSame instead, and too many people are falling for the idea that he's any different. I don't know about the rest of you, but eight years of McGovernment is more than enough for me.

why can't you a-holes go buy some crap--confidently!?

It's not a sad economy, it's a less confident one. I guess it's got that not-so-fresh feeling.

Consumer confidence hates us for our freedoms.

why no confidence?

i've been confident our enconomy's been in the toilet for 8 years now.

listen, what do you want from me - blood? i went thru my receipts today. remember the good old days when gas was $3.939/gallon (like last wednesday). now it's $4.199 where i live. 16¢ in less than a week. fuckers.

i'm pretty confident that at this rate, i'm going to be insolvent pretty soon.

@mac-phisto:

At least you can buy a new home closer to work after housing prices finish their plunge.

Well, the economy was in worse shape during the first four Clinton years (unemployment at 5+%, inflation running at almost 4%) than it ever was under either Bush. I wonder how much of this is due to the media's attempt to bolster Obama as the election nears, by talking up the gloomy-doomy (just like they did in 1992 to get Clinton elected.)

@Dr_Doofus: Of course, all those people talking about going from $22 a hour, or $14 per hour jobs to $7-$8 per hour in the comments on Consumerist are doing just fine. Not to mention that once government paid unemployment "runs out" you no longer count in the statistics.

Scary, scary, scary economy.

@Dr_Doofus: dude, i dunno what your smoking, but i'll take a double dose.

weird, because on tuesday, i was definitely an 87.3.