Pessimism about jobs + higher gas prices + decreasing home values = lower confidence. None of this fits well with the tapestry experts have been trying to weave that things are "slowly" on the upswing. Chairman of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, Daniel Levy, says he's extremely bullish on the U.S economy long-term, but for 2012 he's a bear, watching for signs of the U.S. possibly slipping back into recession. And the Daily Pulse is up today on news that debt collectors have been getting some unnerving calls lately, too. Theirs are coming from the FTA who is chasing illegal collection practices.