Mark Dolliver: Main Street

If there’s not a recession this year, a majority of Americans will be pleasantly surprised. In an Economist/YouGov survey fielded earlier this month, 62 percent said they think there will be a recession. Nor, sad to say, is this poll at variance with other survey results. In a New York Times/CBS News poll, for instance, 19 percent of adults termed the economy “very bad” and another 42 percent “fairly bad.” Last week’s consumer-confidence report from ABC News found fewer than one-third of respondents saying this is a propitious time to buy things (see the chart), putting that measure at a 14-year low.

Amid such gloomy sentiment, it’s hard to take the longer view, but the Economist/YouGov poll pushed Americans to do so.