If the American public were being graded on its knowledge of basic facts pertaining to the current financial situation, we would be getting a “D minus.”
A recent “News IQ” survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 26-29, asked 1,003 adults a series of 12 multiple choice questions about current events and people in the news, and respondents answered an average of 7.4 questions correctly—that’s about 62 percent. Even so, Pew concluded that the American public was “reasonably well-informed” about basic facts pertaining to the current economic situation.
About 83 percent knew that government bailout money is aimed at getting banks to lend more money, not less money, and 71 percent correctly identified China as the foreign country holding the most U.S. government debt.
More Americans knew the current unemployment rate than the current level of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with 53 percent correctly estimating the unemployment rate at about 8 percent and only 40 percent correctly estimating the level of the Dow at about 8,000.
The economy is an admittedly confusing issue for many Americans. Before taking the Pew survey, people were asked to rate their understanding of the economic situation and the government’s economic policies. Roughly 49 percent said they understood the current situation and government policies fairly well, 20 percent said not too well, and 7 percent said not at all.
About 24 percent said they understood the current situation and government policies very well. The Pew survey results, however, indicate otherwise—only 6 percent got a perfect score by answering all 12 questions right. Still, a large majority (71 percent) answered at least half the questions correctly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment