Economy has weakened, says the Fed!

Now that is something most of us have known for quite a while but to actually have Bernanke, the Fed chairman say those words in a public meeting is something that must have sent shivers down the backs of every single trader in Wall Street. The fact of the matter is that consumer confidence is really low these days and no matter what rebates the government offers, it is staying really low.
One can blame it on the Iraq war or on the state of the economy at large or on the mortgage and sub prime crisis, but whatever you do blame it upon, the reality is that for the moment anyway, the consumers are following the banks. By that I mean, that they are holding very tightly onto their purse strings. Will the confidence come back? It will, without a doubt, but the only thing is that it is going to take some time for that to happen.