Likely voters now have even less confidence in the nation's large financial and business institutions than they do in both the federal and state governments.
In contrast, small business and local banks earned very high levels of confidence.
These are among the results of a Zogby Interactive survey of 2,525 likely voters conducted from Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 2010. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.0 percent.
The survey asked confidence levels for all levels of government, business and finance, as well some other major institutions that impact the economy and society.
Eighty-three percent of likely voters said they trusted small businesses “a lot” or “some,” while 73 percent said the same thing about their local bank.
Comparatively, only 38 percent said the same about corporations, while 33 percent said the same about national banks and 31 percent had the same view Wall Street.
Labor unions ranked the same as Wall Street and the news media pulled up the rear in the trust poll at 21 percent.
The federal government fall just about the middle of the pack, with 41 percent saying they trusted the national government “a lot” or “some,” the same level as state governments.
There were some significant differences in confidence levels based on political affiliation and ideology.
For the federal government, 67 percent of Democrats have a lot or some confidence, but only 15 percent of Republicans.
For corporations, 63 percent of Republicans have a lot or some confidence, but only 19 percent of Democrats.
They also differ sharply on whether they have a lot or some confidence in organized religion: 76 percent for Republicans and 38 percent for Democrats, and the news media: 33 percent for Democrats and 11 percent for Republicans.
© Moneynews. All rights reserved.