Mood of U.S. consumers remains dark despite Obama stimulus package
Last Updated: Friday, February 20, 2009 | 1:50 PM ET
CBC News
Nearly four in five Americans think the U.S. economy is getting worse despite the passage of a massive new stimulus package by Washington, according to a new survey released Friday.
A poll conducted by Gallup Inc. said that 79 per cent of Americans surveyed still believe the U.S. economy is deteriorating, about the same percentage as expressed the same sentiment earlier in February.
In the most recent results, only 14 per cent of U.S. men and women said they thought the American economy was improving.
That means the recent signing into law of a $787-billion US financial rescue package by the Barack Obama government has done nothing to lift the spirits of American consumers and workers concerning the economy.
Gallup conducts a daily poll tracking how men and women in the United States see the country's economic prospects. For this one, the company surveyed 1,501 Americans aged 18 years and older by phone from Feb. 16 to 18.
The results are accurate 95 per cent of the time with an error range of plus or minus three percentage points.
"Americans appear to be just as negative about the economy now as they were earlier in February, before the bill's passage became a certainty," said Gallup in an analysis accompanying its poll results.
While many U.S. citizens appeared excited by the election of the first African-American president in U.S. history, those positive sentiments have not translated into a more optimistic view of that country's short-term economic fortunes, Gallup noted.
That contrasted rather starkly with a Canadian poll, conducted by Ekos Research, which found that almost 60 per cent of people in this country were at least somewhat confident that Ottawa's politics will boost the economy.
