A new national poll from Bloomberg today finds that nearly two out of every three Americans dislike top executives in big business, reflecting a broader disdain of Wall Street and Big Finance that wasn’t as prevalent as before. 70 percent of those polled, the poll also found, favor giving consumer protection powers to existing bank regulators and not to a new consumer protection agency, as proposed by the House, Senate, and President Obama. And to no one’s surprise, a majority of Americans think the government should have the power to limit executive compensation for top Wall Street executives.
Here’s more from the Bloomberg poll:
The majority of poll participants—56 percent—say big financial companies are more interested in enriching themselves at the expense of ordinary people, while 40 percent say such firms play a vital role in enabling the economy to grow.
At the same time, Americans are divided over the scope of government regulation. More than 40 percent of Americans say the government has gone too far in measures to fix the financial industry; 37 percent say it hasn’t done enough. Almost six out of 10 people say Wall Street hasn’t gone far enough on its own to protect against future emergencies.
“Anything the government gets their fingers in, they mess it up,” said poll participant Norman White, 60, a community college electronics instructor who lives in Colfax, Louisiana. “I don’t have a very high opinion of the government running anything.” …
The Fed could use some marketing help, the poll shows. More than a quarter of participants don’t have an opinion about the central bank, while 42 percent have a favorable view and 31 percent hold an unfavorable view.
