The majority of Americans believe the economic situation in the US is bound to get worse amid corporate accounting scandals and the plummeting stock market, a new opinion poll showed yesterday.
The survey by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that 68% of respondents believe the US has already fallen into a recession or will within a year, even though official figures show the economy has been growing strongly since January.
57% say they expect conditions to remain the same or get worse. 41% expect them to get better.
But the poll showed President George W Bush still retains the support of American voters. By a margin of 49% to 43%, the respondents approve of Bush's handling of the economy, and 67% back his overall job performance.
With the accounting scandals still rocking the business world, 70% of respondents say they are 'not confident' in the financial information that firms and corporations provide to the public, and 93% say they are 'hardly confident' or 'only somewhat confident' in the executives running major companies.
61% say the scandals at corporations like Enron and WorldCom are a 'widespread problem' in American business, compared with 33% who say the problem is confined to only 'a few corrupt individuals'.
