Annapolis Capital Punishment

It has been said that the difference between a recession and a depression is that in a recession, it's the other guy who loses his job. This week's poll on our personal economic outlooks ended on the day after wild downward spirals in world markets and the Federal Reserve surprisingly cut interest rates by a whopping 3/4%. Here was this week's question: "With recession fears growing in some places, what is your personal economic outlook for 2008?"

We had 55 respondents with the following answers:

I am highly optimistic 7
I am somewhat optimistic 13
I am neutral 8
I am somewhat pessimistic 16
I am highly pessimistic 8
Brother, can you spare a dime 3
Okay, so the last one was a "trick question," but even so, this non-scientific poll gauges the sentiments of a self-selected, non-random, small sampling of CP readers and shows that while almost one out of three is "somewhat pessimistic" about one out of four is "somewhat optimistic." About one out of seven is highly pessimistic while one out eight is "highly optimistic." One out of seven is "neutral." Overall, our readers are leaning a bit more toward the pessimistic than the optimistic side, but once again, with the exception of last week's poll (our most popular by far), we see that CP readers tend to represent a wide range and balance of views and opinions (as of course does yours truly...truly).

I just have one thing to say, "Brother, can you spare a dime?"

This week's poll concerns news media coverage of the presidential campaigns. I have decided not put in any "trick questions" although it would be so easy and fun. Thanks for voting and please keep on voting.