Americans Don't Trust Banks

The above chart comes from the Gallup organization, and it shows that American's confidence in their banks is at an all-time low. Back in 1979, 60% of Americans had a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in banks. Even as late as 2004 this confidence level was as high as 53%. But all of that was before the giant financial institutions kicked off the recession by playing fast and loose with the regulations (and their investors' money).

Since that time the confidence level has been falling. It fell to 22 % in 2009, and is still very low at 23%. And while only 23% have confidence in banks, at least 36% of Americans have very little or no confidence in banks.

I wish I could say the people are wrong and should put their trust back in banks, but that would be a lie. The banks brought this on themselves, and if they want to get the confidence of Americans back they are going to have to earn it by changing the way they do business. But I'm not going to hold my breath to see that -- their greed is just too strong.

Meanwhile, this distrust of banks seems to be low in all areas of the country:
East...............20%
South...............23%
West...............23%
Midwest...............27%