I agree with you the economic understanding of the average American is not deep. But the economy is bad at the moment by anyone's measure, don't you think?

>Polling Americans about the economy is amusing. The lack of economic knowledge in this country is a national disgrace repeatedly on display through the amount of debt people carry. Many hear repeated calls of 'housing crisis', 'credit crunch', and 'sub-prime lending' and even though most have little to no idea what the details are or how it effects the economy as a whole they'll repeat to a pollster that the economy is a 'disaster', just like they heard on tv.
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>What always cracks me up is when you get further down in these stories, if it's mentioned at all, you see the dichotomy that is the average American.
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>"When looking at the current state of their own finances, Americans remain relatively sanguine. More than 70 percent said that their financial situation was fairly good or very good, a number that has dropped only modestly since 2006."
>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/us/03cnd-poll.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=print
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