steady. consumer confidence falling. companies like wal-mart and nordstrom worried. wal-mart says the payroll tax hike is still stinging. mike huckabee finds none of this surprising. it looks like a trend. there s always exceptions, auto sales chief. in wal-mart and they re investor call told everybody they re earnings would not be up to expectations and that s a real key indicator of where the consumers. are and it s not because they re just afraid, they re broke. they don t have money you. don t have money you can t spend it. the government doesn t have money but it goes ahead and spends it. consumers armor accurate indicator of where the economy is, and remember wal-mart shoppers. therapy not the people going to the most expensive place on fifth avenue. these are the folks buying shampoo and soap and toilet paper and looking at ways to cut
index score of 71.5 and just 65.1 in december. that s the lowest number we have seen since august. matt mccall is the president of penn financial group. he jones us now live. how serious is this? it is extremely serious, gregg. we re seeing numbers backdating going back to november. what we haven t seen yet, we won t see until january the effect of the uncertainty of fiscal cliff and potential of falling off the fiscal cliff will have on the economy and have on consumers and potentially lead us back into as you mentioned what a lot of economists believe, another recession. gregg: what happens when fourth quarter earnings come out? nobody is really talking about this. companies, fourth quarter ends in a few days from now. we haven t had many warnings come from companies but when you see consumer confidence falling, mastercard came out with their numbers on holiday sales only increasing .7%. well below estimates and historical averages and consumer is 70% of the
this is what i don t understand. americans think the country s headed in the right direction collapsing. percentage of americans consumer confidence falling. on question after question the american people are becoming as pessimistic, cynical as they were in the last few months of the bush administration. obama had this brief honeymoon now he keeps pushing this health care plan, i don t know who he is listening to but the american people clearly don t want it. sean: i think he s listening to his own ideology here. we ve been asking this question over and over again. would you think at some point he would become pragmatic and look at the polls and hear the american people. at some point he would see there are political consequences for this. the only answer i can come up with is he s following his own rigid ideology, is that a fair guess? it is a possbility. look, the political consequences are significant. arkansas, colorado, indiana,
understand. americans think the country s headed in the right direction collapsing. percentage of americans consumer confidence falling. on question after question the american people are becoming as pessimistic, cynical as they were in the last few months of the bush administration. obama had this brief honeymoon now he keeps pushing this health care plan, i don t know who he is listening to but the american people clearly don t want it. sean: i think he s listening to his own ideology here. we ve been asking this question over and over again. would you think at some point he would become pragmatic and look at the polls and hear the american people. at some point he would see there are political consequences for this. the only answer i can come up with is he s following his own rigid ideology, is that a fair guess? it is a possbility. look, the political consequences are significant. arkansas, colorado, indiana, states with democratic