The American consumer's mistrust of the country's financial system continues to grow. Seventy-seven percent of those questioned said they no longer have trust in the economic system. Experts say that regulators can work to rebuild that confidence. But the public must also be informed enough to know when the program is failing them. Source for this article: Over three-fourths of Americans distrust financial systemDecrease from June of 2 percentThe latest figures from the quarterly Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Confidence Index are down to 23 percent who confidence the economic system from June's figure of 25 percent. In the survey, the trust in the industry is calculated. This is done through companies, the stock industry, mutual funds and banks.According to author Luigi Zingales:"The findings in this issue reflect what's been reported in the news and demonstrate the fragility of trust many Americans still have in the institutions where they invest their money."Banks not trustedCurrently, there is a 33 percent trust rate for banks. In June, that number was at 39 percent. Major lenders were where much of the confidence problems lay. In fact, over half that were interviewed trusted credit unions and local banks much more.Not trusting the governmentPaola Sapienza spoke about how essential politics is. It makes a huge difference when it comes to trusting the financial economy.Half of those surveyed were asked if they believed job creation should take precedent over debt reduction. Of those that replied, two-thirds believed it should. The other half of subjects got a different question. They were asked, “Do you agree with Obama that a government work to create brand new jobs should take priority over a debt reduction?” When referring specifically to the president, fewer people wanted job creation. The support dropped quite a bit. Republicans showed a big dip. It went down 10 percent. Among Democrats, it went down 5 percent.Figures will always changeRegulators can still work on rebuilding confidence, as reported by UPI, Dennis Lockhart who is president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank said"Collectively, the community of regulators must judiciously supervise individual institutions and vigilantly monitor the health of the overall system, to guard the public trust and, above all, avoid a systemic crisis."Do not forget about customersLockhart also said part of that responsibility is on the public, who must be monetarily literate enough to monitor the quality of the financial services it accepts. He talked more about this. He said:"We learned over the last decade that the lack of financial literacy in our citizenry imperils the system, and failings of high-level supervisors and managers can result in considerable harm to the economy and the general public."Articles citedDaily FinanceUPIChicago Booth/Kellogg SchoolChicago Booth/Kellogg Schoolhttp://<a href="http://www.askdirectory.com" title="Ask Directory - FREE Web Directory"><strong>Ask Directory - FREE Web Directory</strong></a>
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The last sentence says it all
I am always going to be proponent of personal responsibility, but I also recognize that there are also pervasive instances throughout history of society being manipulated into complacency, or getting there through pure laziness due to a civilization that advances to a point where convenience rules over all else. This happens accidentally or (more insidiously) on purpose, but it always happens when a people are not purposeful about preventing it.
Today's society is woefully ignorant of most financial matters, leaving everything up to someone else to handle. Anytime knowledge or practice of anything is relegated to authority figures to handle and taken out of the hands or mindset of the individual, the opportunity for oppression or underhandedness magnifies exponentially, because folks just stop caring, or if they do care, they don't understand what is going on. How many classes do we offer in grade school or high school today on money management? Maybe half of one day of class in the 8th grade on balancing a checkbook? When the people aren't taught how to do something in school, it doesn't become a matter of importance, and fewer and fewer will take the initiative later in life to figure it out for themselves.
Find a local bank that you trust. Then take control of your financial future by educating yourself.
How could we trust banks?
How could we trust banks? With the economy going into a slide while they try to add to their fees it is clear who the enemy is. Why our country has yet to learn from our past and understand that a severe level of greed will get you nowhere is beyond me. I would love to know how the big bank ceo's can sleep at night while American is in the position it is. It is hideous and judging from the new wave of workers going into the jobforce it wont get any better.
Not A Bit Surprised
Of course Americans do not have confidence in the financial system, why would they? The economy has taken the starring role in most nightly news programs. People tune in just to hear what terrible thing happened today in the banking industry, or what horrendous change happened to the stock market. The economy is so unstable that just one speech can majorly change the numbers.
People need more stability than that, especially when their livelihood is on the line. The majority of Americans were hit the hardest by the latest recessions, so it is completely reasonable that the number of people that have doubts are high. If the bank bailouts weren't enough to ignite anger, the recent fees banks have placed on their long standing customers should rightfully be shocking.