Three Out of Four Americans Agree: Economy in Shambles

Amid a mortgage meltdown witnessed by millions of Americans losing their homes, being involved in a deepening credit crisis, saddled in extremely high rates of inflation and ongoing job losses, three out of four Americans believe that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday. That is up from 43 percent of respondents that believed that economy was in bad shape one year ago.

The poll was conducted between Aug. 23-24 and consisted of 497 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.

43 percent of respondents said they believed economic conditions are “very poor” while 32 percent considered conditions to be “somewhat poor.” Only 21 percent believe it is “somewhat good” and just 4 percent said “very good.”

"I'd be shocked if they felt any differently," David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's, said when asked about the change in perceptions of the economy.

Wyss said the main factor behind peoples poor outlook on the economy is the skyrocketing price of energy, especially gasoline where consumers are truly feeling the effects on their wallets. Despite prices inching down recently, the average gallon of gas nationwide is still 34 percent higher than last year.

Wyss also warned that he expects things to worsen, especially in the job market, where 463,000 jobs have already been shed this year, according to the Labor Department.

"I don't even think we've seen the worst of it," said Wyss, who doesn't see any evidence of an imminent upturn. "I think we'll lose another half million jobs, and possibly another million."

Source CNNMoney.com:

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