Americans' confidence in the economy is sliding these days, reversing improvements made in early September, the Gallup polling firm reports.

Confidence is about as negative now as it was throughout August, when a political impasse over lifting the debt ceiling almost threw the country into default and did result in a credit downgrade.

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index for the week ending Sept. 25 came to negative -52, compared with negative-54 in late August.

"Confidence continues to run well below year-ago levels," Gallup reports.

"Americans' confidence in the economy continues to be extremely fragile after the economic and political drama of the past two months. Thus far in September, confidence has improved ever so slightly, with weeks of improvement followed by weeks of nearly comparable decline."

The highly tracked consumer confidence index, managed by the Conference Board, rose slightly to 45.4 in September from 45.2 in August, according to MarketWatch.

"Consumer expectations, which had plummeted in August, posted a marginal gain. However, consumers expressed greater concern about their expected earnings, a sign that does not bode well for spending," says Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s consumer research center.

"In addition, consumers' assessment of current conditions declined for the fifth consecutive month, a sign that the economic environment remains weak."

Amid better economic times, the consumer confidence index should come in around 90 or better.

“Consumer confidence remains very fragile as the economy remains on stall speed and recession probabilities rise. The lack of hiring certainly doesn’t help, along with the extreme volatility in financial markets,” says Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, according to MarketWatch.