MoneyNews.com
By Forrest Jones
Financial worries and unease about the future are the worst since 1991-1992, a Gallup poll finds.
About 51 percent are worried about maintaining their standard of living, 43 percent are worried about being able to pay medical bills, and 34 percent fear they will lose their job, the highest figures in 20 years.
The numbers don't bode well for President Barack Obama.
"Americans' economic anxiety today is most similar to what it was in 1992," Gallup says in a statement.
"The economic angst at that time helped contribute to George H.W. Bush's re-election defeat that year. Far fewer were worried in 2004, when George W. Bush won a second term."
Americans were most worried about the overall economy, with 72 percent fearing it will get worse before improving, followed by outliving their money in retirement, with 57 percent worried over such a possibility.
Some 51 percent were worried about home values not increasing.
Consumer confidence figures have been improving in recently months, though higher fuel prices has threatened to rattle still-frayed nerves.
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index declined to minus 47.4 in the period ended Jan. 15 from a reading of minus 44.7 the prior week thanks in part to rising prices at the pump.
"Consumer sentiment is particularly sensitive to shifts in the price of gasoline," says Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist at Bloomberg LP in New York, the newswire reports.
"Consumer balance sheets remain stressed due to lackluster wage growth, despite a modest improvement in the labor market."
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