RasmussenReports.com, July 21st, 2006
Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans are very worried about inflation over the next year or so. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults found that another 36% are somewhat worried about the potential impact of rising prices.
Women are more likely to be worried than men; Democrats more than Republicans; and, non-Investors more worried than Investors. The conventional wisdom among economists is that higher interest rates help cool down inflationary trends, but a plurality of Americans (47%) believe that higher interest rates will make inflation worse. Just 31% see higher rates as a tool that helps control inflation. A plurality of Investors share the conventional wisdom of economists. Most non-Investors do not.
Higher income Americans are also more likely to believe that higher interest rates help control inflation. Lower income Americans overwhelmingly disagree.
Twenty-one percent (21%) of Americans say they follow comments from the Federal Reserve very closely. However, only 11% have a strong opinion one way or the other about the new Fed Chairman.
Rasmussen Reports measures the economic confidence of Investors and Consumers on a daily basis.
Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.
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Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome.
During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports June 17-18, 2006. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. (see Methodology)
