Majorities of people in China and America now have a more positive view of the economy in China than the economy in the United States, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.

According to recent comments on Facebook, the Chinese people may now be advising their kids not to throw away food, since it could go to feed a poor American family. Some reversal of fortune, eh? Thanks Republicans.

Majorities of Chinese and Americans in 2011 agree now is a bad time to find a job in the city or area where they live — but Americans are more negative, according to Gallup. Seventy-two percent of Americans say it is a bad time to find a job, compared with 56 percent of Chinese.

Chinese are also more positive about the general economic conditions where they live. Eighty percent of Chinese say the economic conditions in communities are getting better, while 5 percent say they are getting worse. This compares with the 48 percent of Americans who say their local economic conditions are getting better, while 43 percent say they are getting worse.

“Here again, Chinese attitudes have been fairly steady,” Gallup concludes, “while Americans’ have been more volatile.”

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But More Approve Than Disapprove of the Protests

A new Gallup poll has some heartening results for the Occupy Wall Street movement, in that more Americans approve than disapprove of the protests, although it shows that the lack of an effective communications strategy and coherent goals could jeopardize the movement’s effectiveness (see Further Analysis below).

Less than half of Americans express an opinion about the Occupy Wall Street movement’s goals or the way it has conducted its protests. Those with an opinion are more likely to approve than disapprove, however, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has attracted significant alternative and mainstream media attention for its nearly month-long protest of major U.S. financial institutions in New York, with similar demonstrations taking place in other cities across the country in recent weeks.

“But the American public does not seem to be very familiar with the movement or its goals,” according to Gallup’s analysis of public opinion.

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The Point is Not for Old Hippies to Have Fun

The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

The cool October air has driven me inside. It’s that time of year again, when the rotation of the earth leads to shorter days and cooler nights.

God has nothing to do with it. That’s just how our planet works.

Meanwhile on the outside, people all over the planet are finally getting off their couches and protesting the abysmal economic situation brought on by the greed and corruption of the American moneyed class.

In New York, where the protests began, the Occupy Wall Street movement celebrated when the decision was made to keep Zuccotti Park open instead of forcing the protesters out while a company cleaned the park. They feared, probably correclty, that once the crowd was dispersed, the protest would effectively end.

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by Michael Braunstein
Guest Column
Special to the Locust Fort News-Journal

The current economic collapse that has led to the continued occupation of Wall Street is a long time in the making, and solutions are not easily coming.

Our current economic system dates back to the beginning of the 1830′s when specialization of employment and a surplus of goods brought economics from the area of biblical mandate and the Divine Rights of Kings to the realm of conscientious political policy.

Every seven to ten years between 1830 to 1929 the American economy went through a terrible boom and bust cycle from complete unemployment and economic standstill to full employment and then crashing back to zero.

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Although the Deficit Edges Up

More Americans say unemployment is the No. 1 problem facing the United States than anything else at the start of the new year, according to Gallup’s latest poll on the subject.

Mentions of “the economy” in general as the leading problem have been trending downward since October, with 29 percent now saying unemployment is No. 1. The current 26 percent reading for the economy in general is the lowest since May, while focus on the federal deficit has been edging up. The 12 percent of Americans citing the deficit this month is the highest Gallup has recorded in at least a decade.

A large majority, 68 percent of Americans, name at least one economic issue as the top problem.

The survey was conducted the weekend of the incident in which six Americans were killed, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and several others were critically wounded, in the Arizona shooting rampage, but it may have been too soon for the survey to measure any changes in Americans’ perceptions of the nation’s top problem — such as an increase in concern about gun violence.

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CBS Sixty Minutes Reports

Steve Kroft reports on the precarious financial conditions many states are facing and what they’re doing about it.

By now, just about everyone in the country is aware of the federal deficit problem, but you should know that there is another financial crisis looming involving state and local governments.

It has gotten much less attention because each state has a slightly different story. But in the two years, since the “great recession” wrecked their economies and shriveled their income, the states have collectively spent nearly a half a trillion dollars more than they collected in taxes. There is also a trillion dollar hole iln their public pension funds.

The states have been getting by on billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds, but the day of reckoning is at hand. The debt crisis is already making Wall Street nervous, and some believe that it could derail the recovery, cost a million public employees their jobs and require another big bailout package that no one in Washington wants to talk about.

“The most alarming thing about the state issue is the level of complacency,” Meredith Whitney, one of the most respected financial analysts on Wall Street and one of the most influential women in American business, told correspondent Steve Kroft

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The Economy and Jobs Named as Most Important Problems

Only 17 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time, and for good reasons, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.

This marks a low point in a year when satisfaction levels generally have been in the 20 percent range. The current 17 percent satisfaction rating is low from a historical perspective, but still exceeds the all-time low, 7 percent in October 2008, the month before Barack Obama captured the presidency for the Democratic Party.

The United States’ continuing economic struggles are likely the main reason behind the low satisfaction levels.

Gallup’s “most important problem” question confirms this, as 30 percent of Americans say the economy in general is the top problem and 24 percent say unemployment or jobs specifically, easily the top two issues mentioned by the people surveyed. Thirteen percent mention dissatisfaction with the government in general. Ten percent say the federal budget deficit is the top problem, and 8 percent recognize health-care as the biggest problem that has yet to be solved, in spite of the health-care law passed by the Obama administration.

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In two states where workers are desperate for jobs — Wisconsin, where the jobless rate is 9.4 percent, and Ohio, where it’s 9.9 percent — the incoming governors rejected $1.2 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail projects, which would have created tens of thousands of good jobs.

Republican Governors-elect Scott Walker (Wis.) and John Kasich (Ohio) have turned away hundreds of millions of dollars to build the rail lines and buy the made-in-America equipment because their states would have to share a few million dollars a year in operating costs.

That’s like turning down a free car because you have to pay for gas, said Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt.

“Walker’s rejection of the rail project is a clear indication that our elected leaders are putting political ideology above the needs of Wisconsin working families, since 15,000 family sustaining jobs were lost today, and the callous, short-sighted actions that cost our state so much will not soon be forgotten,” Neuenfeldt said in a statement.

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Strange Bedfellows: Socialist Senator Joined by Tea Party Representatives

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