As economic indicators and holiday shopping numbers trickle out at the year’s end, it’s good to remember that the economy is about more than data points like GDP and unemployment. There’s also personal circumstances and psychology: what people think about their economic situations and prospects. And, like most everything else, people’s economic outlooks are more than a little bit connected to their political perspective.
Put bluntly: Americans tend to be a lot more bullish about their economic prospects if they like the guy in the Oval Office. And it may have little to do with their personal economic reality. CONT.
Dante Chinni, Wall Street Journal