The Exchange Writes: Americans Are Losing Faith in … Themselves
Who are “the American people?”
If you ask politicians (on the record), they’ll tell you the American people are the greatest font of collective wisdom in the history of wisdom. Yet even Americans have growing doubts about their own sensibilities.
A recent Gallup poll found that Americans’ trust in “the American people” has fallen to a record low. Just 61% of respondents said they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust and confidence in their fellow Americans when it comes to making judgments about important issues facing the country. That number peaked at 86% in 1976. In 2005 it was 78%. Even during the 2007 – 2009 recession, the number stayed in the 70s. It began to plunge in 2010.
So Americans seem to be saying to each other, “You’re nuts and I’m not.”
Everybody, of course, has declining confidence in politicians. Confidence in Congress is at a pitiful 10%, the lowest level in the 40 years Gallup has been asking the question. Confidence in the presidency has dropped from a middling 51% in 2009, when Obama took office, to 36% today (though it was slightly lower from 2006 to 2008).
People clearly feel something is wrong in America, and without knowing exactly what it is, they blame government, business, the media , the education system, the wealthy and even organized religion.
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I highly recommend anyone involved in the stock market to read the article above. While seemingly unrelated, the premise in this article has huge repercussions on the financial markets and/or the overall economy.
It could be successfully argued that financial markets and the overall economy are driven not by fundamentals, but by social mood. Elliot Wave Investment Approach has dedicated decades to that point of view and has legitimate data to prove it. Whether or not you agree with such a premise, I can attest that in many cases MOOD SWINGS are the primary driver (not the secondary) where the fundamentals simply follow.
For example, you see such a situation in the stock market at March 2009 bottom. Even though the fundamentals were falling apart and will not recover for at least a year, the mood changed and stocks started to go up. In regards to the article, this is an important indicator to watch.
Further, I see a Nation clearly divided along political lines with each side viewing the other as “UN American.” Clearly that is not good for the future of the country. Basically, this is an important trend to watch. If the indicators above continue to go down, it spells trouble for both the US economy and it’s financial markets.
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