Americans are convinced that things are not going well, and are not likely to improve soon. Gerald Seib, who follows these things for the Wall Street Journal, says Republican pollsters report the national mood as “Sour and dour. Nervous, on edge, a feeling of vulnerability and a lack of control.” Democratic pollsters use different words to capture the same mood, “Anxious, dissatisfied, impatient and basically any other word that connotes uncertainty.” My own experience in the run-up to and during the New Year weekend verifies those findings. At almost every event people who typically pay more attention to college football scores than to international affairs seem unnerved when China tells us where we might fly in Asia, the Russians do the same in the Middle East, Vladimir Putin grabs Crimea despite warnings from Obama that he is “on the wrong side of history”, Iran sends missiles whizzing by our aircraft carrier while we continue to draw up plans to turn $150 billion over the Mullahs, Syria’s Bashar Assad crosses the presidential red line, and we grant diplomatic recognition to Cuba while it continues to round up political prisoners and refuses to return a Hellfire missile that somehow found its way to Cuba from its intended destination in Europe. Even Trump-haters feel “we never win anymore”, a view that colors their view of seemingly unrelated events.
-A real estate agent worries that the strong dollar will deter foreign buyers from continuing to snap up properties here.
