Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street financier who ran a $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme, is expected to plead guilty to 11 criminal counts on Thursday, but he hopes his wife Ruth will be able to keep at least $70 million to live on while he’s in jail.
Most Americans remain confident that the U.S. economy will be stronger in five years than it is today, but most also expect very little to change in the next 12 months.
Most Americans (53%) now think the United States is at least somewhat likely to enter a 1930’s-like depression within the next few years.
Only 12% of Americans say they would prefer to buy a car from an automaker who received a federal bailout.
Confidence about the availability of jobs has dropped over the past two months.
Nearly one-out-of-five Americans (19%) say their primary bank has received federal bailout money, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just 32% of American adults now have a favorable opinion of General Motors. That’s down ten points from 42% a month ago and down thirty-seven points from 69% two years ago.
The Discover U.S. Spending Monitor reached an all-time low in February, falling more than two points to 75.7 (based out of 100). The decline reflects record-low readings for the Monitor's two main components: economic confidence and spending intentions.
The Rasmussen Employment Index, a monthly measure of U.S. worker confidence in the employment market, fell for the fifth straight month in February.
Billions of taxpayer bailout dollars just don’t seem to be helping the image of America’s stumbling automobile industry. Sixty-three percent (63%) of Americans now say they wouldn’t buy a car from an automaker in bankruptcy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
President Obama on Tuesday night tapped Vice President Joseph Biden to lead “a tough, unprecedented oversight effort” to make sure the public’s money is not wasted in any of the administration’s multi-billion dollar reform and economic plans.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters say President Obama is unlikely to achieve his pledge to cut the federal deficit in half within four years. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say he is not at all likely to do it.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters say President Obama’s plan to raise taxes on those who earn more than $250,000 a year would be good for the economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Only 29% of Americans believe the federal government should nationalize some banks that are at risk of going out of business, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
ACORN, a national organization of community activists, is encouraging people in foreclosure to resist the law and refuse to leave their homes. Twenty-one percent (21%) of Americans support the idea.
Americans tend to believe they pay a higher share of their income in taxes than people in other income brackets.
Fifty-five percent (55%) of U.S. voters believe the media tries to make the economy seem worse that it is. That’s an increase from 46% in November.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans favor a plan forcing banks to stop all mortgage foreclosures for the next six months, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
One-out-of-three Americans (33%) already have filed their income taxes at this point, even though they're not due until April 15. This number is down 10 points from the beginning of March 2008, a reflection perhaps of the difficult economic times.
Bailouts, bailouts everywhere, and not an end in sight.
