- Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK Having experienced the economy's ups and downs over the years, older Americans might be expected to take the current recession more in stride than young folks do. A Harris Poll released this week (based on polling fielded last month) indicates just the opposite is true, though, with the echo boomers (age 18-31) significantly more upbeat about their own finances and about the economy at large than is true of their elders.

The numbers suggest that marketers in search of consumers whose confidence hasn't been shattered would be more likely to find them among these echos than among Gen Xers (age 32-43), baby boomers (44-62) or matures (63-plus).

While just 16 percent of the poll's echo boomers said they feel more secure about their financial situation than they had a year earlier, this still exceeds the numbers saying the same among the Xers (14 percent), boomers (11 percent) and Matures (6 percent). The echos were correspondingly less likely to say they feel less secure than a year earlier (45 percent, vs. 54 percent of Xers and 62 percent of the boomer and mature cohorts).

The same pattern is evident when the survey's respondents look ahead. Thirty-two percent of the echos said they think their personal finances would improve in 2009, as did 21 percent of Xers and Boomers and 14 percent of matures. This carries over to some more specific expectations about their financial behavior this year. For instance, echos were less likely to say they'll "cut back on my household spending" (45 percent said they will) than the Xers (58 percent), boomers (64 percent) or matures (51 percent).

Echos were also less likely to say they'd get rid of one or more credit cards (17 percent, vs. 29 percent of Xers and boomers and 20 percent of Matures). And echos don't seem to feel they'll need to drain their savings in order to do their spending: 54 percent said they'll "save more in the year ahead," vs. 41 percent of Xers, 42 percent of boomers and 28 percent of matures.