Senior Fellow Karlyn Bowman

In 1996, market research firm Harris Interactive asked Americans a battery of questions about Wall Street. Perhaps surprisingly, this exploration was one of the first wide-ranging poll-based examinations of public opinion about the financial world.

The verdict? The poll revealed deep ambivalence about Wall Street, which may be shaping the public's reactions to today's financial crisis and the Treasury's rescue plan.

On the poll's broadest question that year, 70 percent said Wall Street benefited the country while 22 percent said it harmed the country.

Harris asked the same question eight times over the next decade. In the poll's most recent iteration, from 2006, the results were virtually identical: 73 to 23 percent. In answer to another question on the 2006 survey, 71 percent agreed that Wall Street is absolutely essential because it provides the money businesses need for investments.

But the public opinion picture wasn't all rosy. Sixty-three percent told the pollsters that they thought most people on Wall Street would be willing to break the law if they believed they could make a lot of money and get away with it.

In another question, 60 percent said Wall Street was dominated by greed and selfishness. Another six in 10 said Wall Street only cares about making money and absolutely nothing else. In each case, around 35 percent dissented. Forty percent thought most successful people on the Street deserve to make the kind of money they earn, but 56 percent did not.

Is what's good for Wall Street good for the country? The response to this question explains why many polls show skepticism of the Treasury's plan. Just 37 percent agreed that what's good for Wall Street is good for the country; 60 percent disagreed.

In Harris' February 2008 poll on public confidence in leaders of major institutions, military leaders topped the list, with 51 percent voicing a great deal of confidence in them. Only 11 percent had high confidence in Wall Street's leaders, putting them level with leaders of organized labor, the press and law firms. Only 8 percent had a lot of confidence in the leaders of Congress. The high water mark of confidence in Wall Street's leaders came in 1999 and 2000, when the economy was booming; 30 percent voiced high confidence in them then.

What are people saying today? First, it is clear people are paying attention. Since 1985, Pew Research Center pollsters have been asking people how much attention they pay to various news stories. In the News Interest Index released this week, 49 percent said they were following the turmoil among financial institutions on Wall Street "very closely," a far higher level of interest than Pew found about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac takeover earlier this month, or even the 1989 savings and loan crisis.

How pollsters word their questions affects public opinion about what should be done. In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 44 percent approved of "the steps the Federal Reserve and Treasury have taken to try to deal with the current situation involving the stock market and major financial institutions," while 42 percent disapproved.

In polling firm Zogby's question, which described the costs and benefits of a "sweeping bailout," 46 percent supported it and 46 percent were opposed. In Pew's question, 57 percent said the government was doing the right thing by "potentially investing billions to try and keep financial institutions and markets secure," but 30 percent said it was doing the wrong thing.

Though confidence in Wall Street is low and concern is high, just 28 percent told Fox News/Opinion Dynamics interviewers that, if they were given $10,000 today, they would put it under their mattress. Two-thirds said it would be safer in a bank.

Karlyn Bowman is a senior fellow at AEI.