By Joe Weisenthal
Business Insider
Last Friday, we asked readers what their #1 fear for the U.S. economy.
These were the results:
- Europe collapsing: 20%
- A China hard landing: 2%
- Gasoline prices: 8%
- A war in Iran: 15%
- Fiscal tightening in 2013: 5%
- Premature monetary tightening: 2%
- Surprise inflation: 5%
- Political dysfunction: 12%
- A terrorist attack in the US: 1%
- A 1987-like market crash: 4%
- A debt crisis in the US: 17%
- A debt crisis in Japan: 1%
- Other: 8%
A Euro collapse was the clear leader. Gasoline prices were only selected by 8% of voters.
Well now today we ran the exact same poll. And check out the results:
- Europe collapsing 13%
- A China hard landing 5%
- Gasoline prices 14%
- War with Iran 12%
- Fiscal tightening in 2013 4%
- Premature monetary tightening 1%
- Surprise inflation 7%
- Political dysfunction 13%
- A terrorist attack in the US 1%
- A 1987-like crash 3%
- A debt crisis in the US 22%
- A debt crisis in Japan 0%
- Other 6%
Just like that, gas prices have shot up to the number 2 spot, with 14 percent of the people selecting it as their #1 fear: A gain of 6 points. European collapse fears have receded dramatically. A U.S. debt crisis comes in bizarrely high, just like last time. We’re not going to read too much into this, except that there’s a certain faction of the public that’s always obsessed with this.
Bottom line though: Gas is the new Europe.