OUCH: Consumer Confidence Falls to Lowest Since March 12, 2009, Approaching Ten Year Low. Plus this: “Just 29% of American adults rate their own finances as good or excellent. That’s down from 43% just before Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall of 2008, down from 35% when Barack Obama took office, and down from 34% at the beginning of 2011. Seventy-four percent (74%) now believe the U.S. economy is in a recession. That’s up from 66% at the beginning of the year.”