It’s Official – Most Americans Despise Wall Street

 

According to a recent Bloomberg National Poll, more than 50% of Americans despise Wall Street and favor punishment of the bankers who caused the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The majority of poll participants — 56 percent — say big financial companies are more interested in enriching themselves at the expense of ordinary people.

This majority negative opinion is reflected in public outrage over the payment of big bonuses to Wall Street executives. As the country struggles with a 9.7 percent unemployment rate 56% favor government action to limit compensation of those who helped cause the financial crisis, or to ban those people from working in the banking industry.

“Let’s not paint all of Wall Street with the same brush, but there are those who really did tremendous harm to our economy,” House Speaker Pelosi told reporters. “‘ we can’t ever let this happen again to the American people.”

J. Boyd Page, senior partner of Page Perry an Atlanta law firm that represents investors, said “I hope that this poll sends a loud and clear message to Congress. America needs regulatory changes governing its capital markets. As former President George W. Bush said ‘Wall Street got drunk’ and, unfortunately, in its drunken stupor, it ruined the lives of many Americans. Wall Street needs to be more accountable for its actions, and, if our current elected officials won’t take appropriate action because of special interest groups, then we need new elected officials.”

The poll of 1,002 U.S. adults was conducted March 19-22 by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.