(Title)
Guardian US article "Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden", Wed. 22 May 2024 by Lauren Aratani
Dear Ms. Ribbans,
Along with a few others I have been discussing the above article, which can be found online here
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/22/poll-economy-recession-biden.
The author, Ms. Aratani, states that the article is informed by a Harris poll commissioned exclusively for the Guardian.
As far as we can establish, the relevant poll is the May 2024 poll whose results are accessible here
https://theharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Wave-222_Banner-4_Newsletter-combined.pdf.
Our concern is that the results found in that PDF don't appear to support the headline/ main contention of the article, nor do the results support some other points made in the article:
(1) The May 2024 Harris Poll results PDF that we have access to doesn't ask respondents if they think the US is in a recession.
(2) There are no questions concerning beliefs about the S&P 500 stock market. There is no reference at all to the stock market.
(3) Respondents are not asked to estimate levels of unemployment.
(4) There are no questions about who might be to blame for any negative, or perceived negative, indicators or findings.
Almost all the questions ask respondents to rate how concerned they are about various issues.
They do not ask respondents for quantitative, or relative, estimates about anything as far as I can tell.
We would be very grateful if you (or Ms. Aratani) would be able to advise us regarding the following:
-Are there relevant Harris Poll results which informed the 22 May Guardian US article which are not in the above-linked PDF?
If so, is it possible for us to view them?
In the unlikely event that the Harris Poll results that we already have are complete, there must be substantial doubts about the claims of the 22 May article.
Thank you, in anticipation of your efforts,
and Regards to Ms. Aratani, whose interesting analysis motivated our interest, ( etc. etc. )