Congress's Honeymoon Winds Down
Americans had high hopes for the new Congress, but they don't think much has changed.  On the question shown below, even Democrats are divided, 47 to 47 percent.

Source: Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, June 2007.

University of Virginia historian Cindy Aron tells us that the idea of taking vacations came slowly to Americans.  When vacations became available to the middle class in the late 1800s, many people used the time off to do work of other kinds, such as attending lectures, Bible study, or working in the fields. In a May 2007 AP/Ipsos survey, 52 percent reported taking a vacation in the past year.  Of this group, about 20 percent reported that they took their laptops, and 19 percent said they worked while away.  Just 15 percent said they called the office.

CEO Pay
A new survey from the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News finds that large majorities of Americans across all political and income lines believe that most CEOs are overpaid.  Maybe they should read the story on this subject that ran in our inaugural issue last November.  Views of CEO pay, or for that matter the pay for top Hollywood actors, sports stars, and media anchors, aren't positive, but views of the contributions of American business are.  Seventy-two percent told Pew interviewers between December 2006 and January 2007 that the strength of this country today is mostly based on the success of American business.

Source: Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, June 2007.

Rise of the Chinese Consumer
While public attention in recent years has been focused on the ubiquity of Chinese manufactures, multinational corporations are just as interested in China's growth as a nation of consumers.  A new study by the McKinsey Quarterly shows that between 1995 and 2005, urban disposable income in China tripled to over $600 billion.  By 2025, this figure is expected to quintuple once more.  Immigrants to China's cities are fueling the boom as they join a ballooning middle class that will account for over half of China's disposable income by 2015.  As the chart below shows, consumption is expected to rise dramatically in every area, but especially in healthcare (11.8% a year) and in discretionary areas such as transportation (9.3%), personal products (9.3%), and recreation (9.5%).

Hair Today

In a June Fox News/Opinion Dynamics survey, 44 percent of those surveyed correctly identified John Edwards as the presidential candidate who recently paid $400 for a haircut.  Roughly equal numbers of Democrats, Republicans, and independents knew about it.

Source: FoxNews/Opinion Dynamics, June 2007.