We know that people are mad as hell about their tax dollars going to bail out big banks and Wall Street, and then seeing the recipients of their hard-earned cash rewarding themselves with million-dollar bonuses.

We also know that the blowback from the bank bailouts is one reason why incumbents, especially the majority Democrats, are in great jeopardy of losing their jobs in November. People can’t vote out big bankers, but we are finding evidence that some people are voting with their bank accounts and moving their business to community banks and credit unions. A recent Zogby Interactive poll found 9% of U.S. adults have taken some of their business away from big banks as a protest.

Read all of John Zogby’s column at Forbes.com.

Paul John Zogby, economics

As the Copenhagen conference heats up, a new proposal has been brought to the table: a planet-wide limit on the number of children people can have. The rather straightforward rationale, as explained by both a Chinese official and a Canadian journalist, is that smaller human population could significantly reduce greenhouse emissions. Needless to say, this has sparked considerable controversy.

In our work on socio-economic intutions, we have discovered that liberals and conservatives have a very different understanding of the role that rising population plays in wealth creation. Specifically, progressives and liberals are much more likely to endorse a Malthusian view that growing number of humans decreases  mankind’s wealth, while conservative and very conservative voters are much more likely to follow a Hayekian conclusion that increasing number of humans leads to greater wealth for all. Here are the results, based on a Zogby Interactive poll of almost 5,000 likely voters.

Zeljka economics, environment, future, global issues, ideology, international

During the past several months, the dollar has experienced renewed decline against other major currencies and there’s plenty of talk about it.

Some economists, such as Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman, have argued that the weak dollar is a net benefit that is necessary to put the economy on track by making American exports cheaper abroad. Others have argued that a weak dollar leads to a loss of capital resulting in a net job loss. In addition, the falling dollar raised fears of inflation and the loss of the dollar’s world prominence.

Are you worried about inflation? Have you personally taken any steps protect yourself from it? Do you think that the American dollar will remain the world’s most important currency?

Zeljka economics, employment, future, global issues, international economy

Some banks have responded to public anger over overdraft fees on debit cards by revising their policies, and the FDIC is calling for tighter restrictions.

So how common is it for people to overdraw their checking account, knowingly or not? An August Zogby poll found that almost a quarter (24%) says they’ve done it since the start of the recession. Who are the guilty parties? Differences among political party are slight, with Democrats (27%) slightly more likely than independents (23%) and Republicans (21%) to say they have overdrawn on their checking account since the start of the recession.
Age makes a big difference, as those ages 65 and older (9%) are the least likely to say they have overdrawn,  compared to New Globals, ages 18-29 and Nikes, ages 30-49, being most likely age groups to say they have done so (30% each).  People with a college degree (21%) are slightly less likely than those without (27%) to say they have overdrawn.

From the “no kidding” file, those who say they or someone in their immediate family has lost a job due to corporate downsizing within the past year (32%) are far more likely than those who have not (21%) to say they have overdrawn on their checking account, and those who classify themselves as being in the investor class (16%) are far less likely than those who do not (28%) to say the same.

Without any previous data to compare all of this to, it’s hard to say whether or not a quarter of those polled saying they have overdrawn since the recession is a concerning number or not. An FDIC report from 2008 found similar numbers, with 75% of customers reporting no overdraft transactions in a 12 month period , but that could be seen as the start of the recession or maybe it was an early indication of things to come.

Have you overdrawn your checking account since the recession began? How careful are you to avoid overdrafts? Should  the government step in to ease the cost of overdrafts for consumers?

Paul Uncategorized, economics media, recession, zogby

Just because Ben Bernanke says the recession is over doesn’t make it so. The chairman of the Federal Reserve may be technically correct that the economy is in recovery, but the average American is not impressed by slight upticks in the indicators.

The disconnect is enormous between Wall Street–where stock prices have improved and banks are prospering again and paying big bonuses–and Main Street, where unemployment levels frighten even those with jobs and discourage consumers from buying and going into further debt.

Read the rest of John Zogby’s column at Forbes.com, where he looks at the political ramifications of the economy and why “green” and high-tech jobs are good themes for politicians.

Paul economics, elections economy, employment, John Zogby, recession, zogby

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has recently proposed that the current way of measuring economic output be replaced with one that includes measures of national happiness. According to the article, he complained that “Behind the cult of figures, behind all these statistical and accounting structures, there is also the cult of the market that is always right”.

Zogby International has a long standing interest in groups of people, such as Secular Spiritualists, who think that happiness rather than material abundance is what really matters. However, pursuing happiness and measuring it can be two different things. Some commentators have already observed that the very idea of measuring happiness defeats Sarkozy’s alleged goal of moving beyond “the cult of figures”.

What is your view of this new approach to measuring GDP? Do you think that happiness can be adequately measured? Would you support such change in the USA?

Zeljka consumption, economics, global issues, international international, zogby

This evening President Obama will address a joint session of Congress with the goal of pushing forward comprehensive health care reform. Some commentators have argued that no speech can resolve the conflicting positions  behind the opposition to the existing plans; others have been more optimistic and have suggested  points and approaches that would need to be included in order for the speech to be effective.

What are your expectations of President Obama’s speech: do you think it will be something special or more of the same? What issues would you like addressed and explained? And, for those joining the discussion after the speech, what  were your impressions?

Zeljka communication, economics, health, politics health, Obama, politics, race, war, zogby

For decades, the U.S. has moved away from being a nation that manufactured products to one that buys things that are made somewhere else.  Given that model, our economy is very dependent on consumption through retail sales to spur growth and profit.
Surveys we have conducted at Zogby International continue to show American society moving away from that model. We are experiencing a paradigm shift that rejects the necessity of owning the next great new thing, and instead embraces satisfaction through relationships, leisure activities, volunteerism, self-expression and spiritual fulfillment. The latest evidence of this came in a series of questions we asked to more than 40,000 U.S. adults in a July interactive survey.

Read all of John Zogby’s article on how Americans are choosing to live with less at Forbes.com.

Paul consumption, culture, economics charity, consumption, economy, international, John Zogby, leisure, race, zogby

Large numbers of U.S. adults have cut back on driving, eating at restaurants, going to the movies and traveling. It’s no surprise that this type of discretionary spending has taken a hit, but these trends are not just the result of a 20-month recession.

To be sure, the recession has added to the count of people who are cutting back. But many Americans had already decided to live with less before the bottom fell out of the economy. That has been an ongoing trend, as more Americans move away from material frivolities and take pleasure in a simpler lifestyle. Now that a recession is forcing many others to also live within limits, how many will discover that they never really needed all those material things to be happy in the first place? That thought should worry consumer-oriented businesses, and encourage those who believe the nation and world are on an unsustainable course.

Read the rest of John Zogby’s column at Forbes.com and more about this survey here.

Paul culture, economics economy, John Zogby, lifestyle, recession, travel, zogby

Many people have argued that the main reason for the high cost of healthcare in the US is the fact that, in essence, insurance covers too much of healthcare costs. In a vast majority of cases, patients do not directly pay for health services and often do not know their prices. Rather, patients choose doctors and procedures without regard to their cost while a third party (insurance company or the government) covers those costs.

On this view, the healthcare prices are skyrocketing partly because users use too many services, but also because they do not exert the competitive pressure on providers to be more efficient. If car insurance covered the costs of gasoline, for example, not only would car insurance premiums be much higher, but gasoline would be much more expensive as well since people would not care how much gasoline they use or how much it costs. Alternatively, if we paid for healthcare out of our own pockets, rather than through our insurance or Medicare, the prices would go down similar to healthcare areas where insurance plays little role such as plastic surgery.

A recent article in the Atlantic discussed these issues and proposed a system where, though we would all have a government-sponsored catastrophic coverage, a vast majority of costs would be paid by individuals, through our (much expanded) healthcare accounts. The author of the article is a Democrat, but the proposal has generated a positive buzz among conservative bloggers as well.

What is your view of the reasons for high healthcare costs? Would you consider a compromise described above?

Zeljka economics, health, politics health