Public to Banks: We Forgive You, Sort Of

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The headline just emailed to me says: “ABC News Poll: Banks Need to Make Amends.” And it’s true: 77% of respondents think banks need to do more. Sounds like people are still pissed! But if you click on the poll, you also get the result on the right.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t look much like an angry mob to me. Basically, the country is evenly split on whether the bank bailout was fair, and a majority thinks banks treat people decently. I’m pretty surprised by that. Judging from news coverage, I would have expected about 80% of the country to loathe the bank bailouts, and after nonstop coverage of credit card and debit card excesses, I’d expect trust in banks to be somewhere around the same level as lawyers and late-night pitchmen. But no. Overall, this reaction is a great big “eh.” It doesn’t bode well for the prospect of public pressure pushing Congress to do anything serious about financial reform.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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