Public concern over the state of the economy has been rising rapidly. In early to mid-January 26% of adults over 18 thought economic conditions were excellent or good, 73% said fair or poor (Election-Year Economic Ratings Lowest Since '92, Pew Center, Jan 24).
Two weeks later the positive rating had dropped to 17% and the negative rating had risen to 81% (Economic Discontent Deepens As Inflation Concerns Rise, Pew Center, Feb 14).
The figure on the left summarizes responses to the rating question back to the start of the Clinton Administration.
When asked, "What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?" (this appears to have been an open-ended response question). 24% of the persons in the survey at the end of January said prices (especially for energy and health care), 18% said jobs, 13% said housing, and 11% said government.
International issues came up a couple of times. Three percent thought immigration was the most important problem, 2% said trade, 1% said the declining value of the dollar. Of those who thought jobs were the most important problem, 4% related the problem to jobs moving overseas.
Who do adults blame? Respondents who rated the economy as poor or fair were given the opportunity to blame each of the following: banks, large investment firms, multinational corporations, labor unions, Bush, Congress, and Bernanke. People tended to blame Bush the most, Congress next. Seventy-seven percent blamed Congress a "great deal" or a "fair amount," and 76% blamed Bush. However, more Bush-blamers fell in the "a great deal" grouping, while Congress-blamers tended to fall in the "a fair amount" group. Multinational corporations came in third with 66%. Bernanke and labor unions were at the other end of the spectrum, with about 30% each.
With respect to multinationals:
An identical percentage (31%) of those who say the economy is doing only fair or poor say multinational corporations deserve a great deal of blame for the nation's economic problems. This belief is more particularly prevalent among older Americans, less educated people and those who describe their households as working class or struggling. In addition, more Democrats than either independents or Republicans blame multinationals a great deal for the nation's economic troubles (36% of Democrats vs. 28% of independents and 24% of Republicans).
There's an interesting question about the leading economic power in the world. Forty-one percent of respondents thought it was the U.S. and 30% thought it was China. The report notes the contrast when a similar question was asked in 1989. As you might guess, Japan was the leading competitor with the U.S. then, and China wasn't on the radar screen. What you may find surprising is that back then, most Americans - 58% - thought Japan was the leading economic power in the world; only 29% of Americans thought the U.S. was the leading power. So Americans were more apprehensive about the Japanese threat to their preeminence in 1989 than they are about China now.
Other posts on public opinion may be found here.
The figure above is from Economic Discontent Deepens As Inflation Concerns Rise, Pew Center, Feb 14.
http://americanresearchgroup.com/economy/
Apparently they blame Bush as the person responsible as the numbers seem to correlate to a reasonable degree.
Posted by: stevelaudig | February 21, 2008 at 07:21 AM