The recession may have officially ended in June 2009, but consumer confidence remains at recession levels heading into holiday shopping season. In fact, the most recent Consumer Confidence Index from the Conference Board went down 6.6 points for the month of November to 39.8 percent. By comparison, the Confidence Index was 70.4 percent in February of 2011. Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times, discusses how will this translate to consumer spending in the holiday shopping season ahead. David Zarin, president of Zarin Fabrics in New York and executive vice president of the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, speaks from the perspective of a small business owner.
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