Well, here's some bad news. Reuters says that the ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index dropped to -33 in the week ended Feb. 3, which is its lowest reading since November 1993.

In a separate ABC News/Washington Post poll released earlier this week, 59 percent of Americans said they think the economy is already in a recession.

Confidence measures are generally viewed as a barometer of consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the U.S. economy. However, economists note that consumers do not always act in accordance with their statements to surveys.

The ABC/Washington Post consumer confidence survey was based on a sample of about 1,000 interviews conducted in the four weeks ending Feb. 3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.