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American distrust of banks reaches highest level

The recession might be officially over, but American views toward the institutions that brought the economic system close to collapse have never been worse.

According to a new poll by Gallup, 36 percent of Americans now say they have “very little” or “no” confidence in U.S. banks, the highest percentage on record since Gallup first started tracking that data. Those saying they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in banks has also stagnated, stuck at 23 percent for the second straight year, after falling to a low of 22 percent in 2009.

Safe to say it’s been a tough year in the banks’ public relations departments.

So this year’s Gallup results only further emphasize the growing animosity toward banks in America. Never before 2009 had more Americans expressed more distrust than trust in banks. That has not only been the norm for three years now, but the gap is widening. Huffington Post

FACTS & FIGURES
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the total number of bank failures in 2011 has so far been 47, compared to 157 in 2010, 140 in 2009, 25 in 2008 and just 3 in 2007. FDIC

According to a Gallup report released in April 2011, more than half of Americans (55%) describe the U.S. economy as being in a recession or depression, even as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) reports that “the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace.” Another 16% of Americans say the economy is “slowing down,” and 27% believe it is growing. Gallup

According to an NBC News poll conducted in May 2011, nearly 70 percent of respondents think the economy will get worse or stay the same in the next year. MSNBC

U.S. real unemployment rate in 2011 is almost twice what it was before the onset of the recession in 2007, and at the current pace, it looks as if it will take until late 2016 to make up for the net job loss to date of 7.5 million. U.S. News

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