My conclusion: Americans are pretty knowledgable about our economic problems, and as they watch public policy evolve they’re becoming more wary of major government involvement in the economy. The tea party participants, (whose numbers have been estimated at “300,000,” by Obama backer Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com and “more than 623,000,” by tea party sympathizers at pajamasmedia.com,) are evidently more in line with the trend of widespread public opinion than the mainstream media would like you to think."

You can forget, as you go about your daily work, the name of the Secretary of the Treasury, even while remembering significant things about him (he has Wall Street experience, he didn’t pay all of his taxes). But the Pew interviewers found that Americans do pretty well on quiz questions these days. A 53% majority said that national unemployment was around 8% and 40% said that the Dow Jones average was hovering around 8000. As you might expect, college grads were more knowledgeable than those less educated, high earners (and middle earners) more knowledgeable than low earners, older people more knowledgeable than young people. Republicans were also considerably more knowledgeable and Independents more knowledgeable than Democrats. And, to a greater extent than I had expected, men were much more knowledgeable than women.