Wall Street

"The words 'Wall Street' are often used to describe the nation's largest banks, investment banks, stockbrokers and other financial institutions. Overall, would you say that Wall Street and what it does, benefits the country a lot, benefits it somewhat, harms it somewhat or harms the country a lot?" (Harris)

      Benefits   Benefits     Hurts     Hurts     Other/DK

       a lot     somewhat    somewhat   a lot

9/96    19%       51%         16%        6%          8%

10/97   27%       53%         10%        3%          7%

9/98    22%       51%         16%        3%          8%

9/99    24%       48%         11%        3%         14%

9/2000  22%       47%         13%        3%         15%

10/02   23%       43%         17%        7%         10%

2/10    11%       44%         24%       14%          6%

4/11    11%       43%         23%       16%          6%

"Overall, would you say that Wall Street and what it does, benefits the country a lot, benefits it somewhat, harms it somewhat or harms the country a lot?"

10/03   19%       51%         16%        6%          8%

10/06   22%       51%         17%        6%          5%

2/09    17%       37%         25%       14%          7%

There was a big drop in positive evaluations between 2006 and 2009, but not as big as I would have expected. On the other hand, they haven't bounced back at all since 2009.