Fifty-five percent (55%) of Americans are at least somewhat confident that Barack Obama’s economic team can lead the country out of its current economic problems. Twenty-five percent (25%) are Very Confident.

Only 13% are not at all confident in the new team, and five percent (5%) are undecided, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

But 35% say Obama’s Cabinet appointments so far do not fulfill his campaign promise of bringing change to Washington. Thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree, and 28% are undecided.

Investors are more skeptical of Obama’s economic team. Forty-eight percent (48%) of investors are somewhat confident in Obama’s choices, including 20% who are Very Confident. Sixty-three percent (63%) of non-investors, 32% of whom are Very Confident, agree. Sixteen percent (16%) of investors are not at all confident in the new economic team, compared to 10% of non-investors.

The Rasmussen Investor Index was up a point on Tuesday but set an all-time low last Wednesday. The Index is down 45 points from the beginning of the year.

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Women are more confident than men in the new economic team overall, but more men - by five points - are Very Confident in Obama’s nominees.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Democrats are confident in the economic team, as are a plurality of unaffiliated voters (48%) and 26% of Republicans. One-quarter of Republicans (25%) and 14% of unaffiliated voters are not at all confident in the president-elect’s choices, compared to just three percent (3%) of Democrats.

Obama is at his highest level yet in today’s daily Presidential Approval Index.

In a survey last week, 53% of voters did not know enough about Timothy Geithner, Obama’s choice for secretary of the Treasury, to have an opinion about him one way or the other. Thirty-one percent (31%) had a favorable opinion of the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who has been heavily involved in the economic rescue planning of the past three months, and 16% have an unfavorable opinion of him.

The numbers were similar for two other top Obama economic advisers, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and ex-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.

Just 12% of voters now say current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has done a good or excellent job handling the country’s credit crisis and the bailout programs aimed at helping the economy. Forty–two percent (42%) rate Paulson’s performance as poor.

Only 26% of Americans are at least somewhat confident that U.S. policymakers know what they are doing when it comes to addressing the nation’s current economic problems.

Forty percent (40%) of women say Obama’s Cabinet choices fulfill his promise of change, compared to 33% of men. Forty-one percent (41%) of men and 29% of women do not see the appointments as a signal of change from business as usual in the Nation’s Capital.

Among Democrats, 60% see “change” in the Cabinet nominees, but 11% do not. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans do not view the nominations as indicative of change, while 12% do. Unaffiliated voters are evenly divided.

Men and women under age 40 are more skeptical about the nominations than those 40 and older.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of African-Americans view the Cabinet appointees as symbolic of change, but only 34% of whites agree.

The survey was taken prior to the announcement on Monday of Obama’s national security team which includes Hillary Clinton as secretary of State and the holding over of Robert Gates, President Bush’s current secretary of Defense. The names of both nominees were widely reported, however, days before the official announcement.

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