by Mark Silva
With further evidence here that it's the economy, stupid, that could play a deciding role in the presidential contest, the Pew Research Center has collected some unsettling findings about the mood of the American public:
38 percent of those surveyed say affording the cost of food is becoming a problem.
55 percent say real estate values have slipped.
73 percent say good jobs are scarce locally.
87 percent say who is elected president matters to the economy.
And while overall public opinion toward Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama appears to be somewhat evenly divided in the July 23-27 survey, more view Obama as capable of doing something about the economy.
"The public continues to be extremely downbeat about the national economy,'' the Pew Center reports, with just 10 percent calling the economy in good shape and 72 percent saying the economy is either in a recession (54 percent) or depression (18).
That percentage of people calling food difficult to afford has grown from 27 percent to 38 percent since February. And the share of people citing rising prices as the most important economic problem facing the nation has nearly doubled since February - up from 24 percent then to 45 percent in the latest July survey.
"While rising costs are clearly the top economic problem in the public's view, it is far from their only concern,'' Pew notes, with more than seven in ten calling good jobs hard to find, compared with 55 percent a little over a year ago.
"Multiple economic concerns are taking a toll on public optimism,'' Pew adds. "About half of Americans (51 percent) expect their personal financial situation to improve over the next year, down from 55 percent in March and 60 percent in January. Yet despite the worsening economic perceptions, the public does not see the economy as beyond repair. Nor do they believe that the government is incapable of fixing the economy in an era of global economic interdependence.''
With 87 percent of those surveyed saying that, when it comes to the economy, it matters who is elected president, 47 percent say Obama can do a better job of improving the economy and 32 percent say McCain can. That's slightly narrower than the margin which favored Obama on this score in a June survey - 51 to 31 percent.
See the full results of the survey here: Economic Survey.pdf
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Comments
The Democrats in Congress, by refusing to allow oil drilling, are killing our economy and forcing thousands of people out of work. Experts say the mere decison of drilling for more oil would drive down the futures market in oil. Increased supply means lower prices. Auto workers, whose plants building light trucks and SUVs are closing, can blame their plight directly on Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Posted by: Barick | August 1, 2008 9:35 AM
"Experts say the mere decison of drilling for more oil would drive down the futures market in oil."
so are you gonna provide a credible link to back this up or what??
didn't think so.
obama 08
Posted by: jack | August 1, 2008 11:24 AM
Gee, those curves must tell us something about the effectiveness of Republican and Democrat economic policies but what is it?
Posted by: Kenneth Janowski | August 1, 2008 11:37 AM
Barick,
That is the most simple minded comment I have seen. How have the Democrats stopped oil production? I thought the Cheney energy bill which was signed by Bush was going to solve our long term energy issues. The blame goes to the Bush administration for such a short sighted policy. We also pay an estimated .75 more per gallon because of the increased retoric toward Iran. Mc Cain's bomb, bomb bomb song had more impact on prices than the the Democrats.
Posted by: pd | August 1, 2008 1:54 PM
Jack - let's walk thru teh futures market. The prices on the futures market is set based upon the expected supply and the expected demand of a commodity. Therefore, let's say Speaker Nancy were to come out tomorrow and gove her blessing to expand drilling off the coasts, then the expected supply would increase and therefore the futures price would decrease. Simple enough for you?
Posted by: Terry | August 1, 2008 6:44 PM
Then of course there's the fact that almost all real estate is actually down? The trolls won't argue facts, they argue focus group tested spin?
Posted by: BOB2 | August 2, 2008 8:14 PM