A Mishmash of Economic Opinions

There’s nothing like a bad economy to foster a mishmash of economic thinking. Consider the results of some April surveys about the recession. In a Quinnipiac poll, 33 percent of respondents said they think the economy is “getting worse,” while 24 percent said it’s “getting better” and 42 percent said it’s “staying about the same.” (The rest were unsure.) An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, whose field dates overlapped with those of the Quinnipiac poll, added a more specific time frame and got quite different results: 38 percent of its respondents said the economy will get better “during the next 12 months,” vs.