The government shutdown back in early October had an unsurprising dampening effect on most Americans' view of our economy. Gallup's Economic Confidence Index dropped to -39 in mid-October, its low point for the year. So it's probably to be expected that confidence is now rising again, back up to -24 in the latest reading.
But the slowdown may still be having lingering effects. The confidence gauge is still lower than it was all year prior to October; it had bottomed out at -22 at the beginning of March. The high point for the year came in early June, when the confidence reading hit -3.
You may have noticed that all those numbers are negative, but that doesn't mean that 2013 has been unusually dour. In fact, this year is shaping up to have, in aggregate, the highest economic confidence of any year since 2007, before the recession.
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