80% of Americans Say Economy Stinks

05/06/2011Doug French

While the talking heads on financial TV continue to spout the idea that the economy is improving, the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey reveals that Americans are suffering, with 80% saying the economy is poor.

People are worried about unemployment first and foremost because while the headline unemployment rate is 9%, the real unemployment rate, including discouraged workers and part-time is double that. Hearing Hampton Pearson announce that non-farm payrolls increased 244,000 in April doesn’t give solace to the one in five that can’t find work.

The budget deficit has people concerned along with $4 a gallon gas, taxes, and the cost of housing.

More than half say it’s George W. Bush’s fault and a third pin the blame on the current president.

Ben Bernanke and the Fed are not cited in the CNNMoney.com report as being mentioned by the disgruntled 80%.

Neither the late Osama bin Laden or Muammar Gaddafi were blamed either.

Author:

Doug French

Douglas French is President Emeritus of the Mises Institute, author of Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases in the Money Supply, and author of Walk Away: The Rise and Fall of the Home-Ownership Myth. He received his master's degree in economics from UNLV, studying under both Professor Murray Rothbard and Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

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