Blame sour mood on economy on Iraq, not gas prices or wages [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05233/557049.stm

Americans are in a sour and pessimistic mood.

President George W. Bush's job approval rating is an unimpressive 42 percent, according to the latest Associated Press poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs. Attitudes are lousy about just about everything. Only 41 percent of Americans approve of the president's handling of the economy, the same poll shows.

These low ratings on the economy are consistent with other measures of consumer attitudes. For example, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index tracking expectations, the variable that academic economists have found most important for predicting consumption, is down from the start of the year. The index has been much stronger during similar booms in the past.

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There are only two possibilities. Either Americans see an economic reversal coming that markets have missed, or the data are fine and Americans are upset about something else.

I think it's the latter, and that something else, I submit, is Iraq.