(From the ft.com) A large majority of Americans believe their economic situation is the same or worse than it was a year ago when the US was still mired in recession, according to a new survey that will heighten concerns about waning consumer confidence in the world’s largest economy. The study by AlixPartners, a business consulting group, will show that even after almost a full year of growth in the US economy, many Americans are still not feeling the benefits of the recovery, and remain more preoccupied with fixing their household balance sheets than spending money.

The outcome of the study chimes with recent drops in other US consumer confidence indices – most recently the consumer sentiment survey from Reuters and the University of Michigan, which plummeted unexpectedly in July, causing a sharp drop in equity indices when it was released on Friday.

Such mounting pessimism will reinforce the belief among economists that the US recovery has hit a significant roadblock in recent months, and that consumers are in no position to drive the economy forward as government stimulus fades in the second half of 2010.

Read more here: Americans lose faith in recovery