Screen at NY Stock exchange displaying Dow Jones Industrial Average, Aug 10
A large majority of Americans say the United States is on the wrong track and nearly half believe the worst is yet to come, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
The poll reflects growing anxiety about the economy and frustration with Washington after a narrowly averted government default, a credit rating downgrade by Standard & Poor’s, a stock market dive and a 9.1 per cent jobless rate.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll — conducted from last Thursday to Monday — found 73 per cent of Americans believe the United States is “off on the wrong track,” and just one in five, 21 per cent, think the country is headed in the right direction.
The survey found that 47 per cent believe “the worst is yet to come” in the U.S. economy, an increase of 13 percentage points from a year ago when this question was last raised.
President Barack Obama was politically bruised in the brutal debt ceiling debate and negative views on the economy are worrisome signs for his 2012 re-election bid. His approval rating dropped to 45 per cent from 49 percent a month ago.
Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said the wrong-track measure reflects widespread unhappiness with the economy and frustration at both political parties, but “you can’t say it’s a predictor of how Obama will fare” in 2012.
A new Washington Post Poll on Wednesday underscores just how angry Americans are the state of the economy and Washington’s seeming inability to do anything about it. “Anger at Washington has been growing for some time, but the latest political battle has resulted in an intensification of the discontent,” The Washington Post reports.
According to the newspaper’s poll, a majority of Americans oppose the debt ceiling compromise.
Here are a few more highlights:
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Nearly 75 per cent of Americans have little or no confidence in Washington to fix the economy
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Nearly 80 per cent are dissatisfied with the way the political system is working
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More than seven in 10 say Washington is focused on the “wrong things”
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