… Compared with earlier in Obama’s second term, more Americans now approve of his job performance. More also expect their personal financial situation to improve over the next year. But, even so, less than half of Americans express positive views on either question in the new survey, and neither shows […] Read more »
The Second Roundtable on the White Working Class
Welcome to the second white working class roundtable, a project of The Democratic Strategist in collaboration with the Washington Monthly. … The present White working class roundtable is organized around a provocative strategy paper by leading opinion analyst Stan Greenberg that is entitled “The Fight for Working People Begins with […] Read more »
Trade politics
… The TPP may be good for that abstraction we call “the economy” and for those Americans already doing well, but, as written, there is little evidence it will help those who aren’t at the top, and indeed, it may well further erode their economic standing. Few Americans earned Ph.D.s […] Read more »
Economic Confidence Index, Gas Prices Linked
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index averaged -6 for the week ending June 14. This reading continues the trend in generally lower confidence levels over the last several months, compared with the readings in positive territory in late 2014 and early 2015. CONT. Frank Newport, Gallup Read more »
American Consumers Getting Mojo Back as Wages Start Rising
Bigger paychecks are giving American consumers reason to believe again. The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for June rose to 94.6, topping all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, from a reading of 90.7 last month, figures showed Friday. Households were the most upbeat about their wage prospects […] Read more »
Things are looking up for President Obama
President Obama’s standing with the American public is improving as he nears the final 18 months of his presidency, and a combination of solid economic numbers, finding common ground with Republicans, and a diminished need to serve as the partisan leader of Democrats should augur well for the stretch run. […] Read more »