Despite rosy reports on jobs and strength in stock indexes, polls show that Americans are none too impressedDo ordinary Americans know something about the U.S. economy that the experts don't? A perception gap has opened up lately between Wall Street and Main Street. Optimism about the economic outlook is still fairly strong among professional investors, market strategists, and economists, but there's increasing pessimism in the America where most people live and work.
And here's where perception could become reality. If Main Street is right, and it has been before, it could be bad news for the stock market, not to mention corporate profits and the general climate for business.
At the start of 2007, the market and the public seemed to be in sync: both optimistic. But since then, the stock market has marched generally higher (with a few downward jolts, of course) while public sentiment has faded. Robert Garcia, senior events producer for New York-based Job Expo, which puts on employment fairs, says he senses a lot of uncertainty among ordinary Americans. "There's a war. People are unsure about where that's going to lead us. The housing market's in a big slump and it's going lower."
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