RJ and Makay

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World population will cross the 7 billion mark today, according to the United Nations.  It has been 12 years since the planet’s population passed the 6 billion mark in 1999.  At that time, rising stock market values, rising incomes and declining commodity prices, along with continued progress in fighting hunger and severe poverty, had many optimistic about future growth.

In the past two months, investors’ confidence in their outlook for global growth and corporate profits substantially slipped, according to a May Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of global fund managers.

The proportion of respondents who believe the world economy would be strengthening in the next 12 months fell to a net 10%, down from 27% in April and 58% as recently as February. Only 9% of respondents are expecting corporate profits to improve in the coming year.

Americans’ optimism about an economic recovery, already very fragile, has taken a turn for the worse.  According to a new Gallop Poll of May 5-8, “Three of four Americans name some type of economic issue as the most important problem facing the country today. This represents the highest net mentions of the economy in two years.”

Gallop also found that Americans see their place and the U.S.’s place in the world eroding, and believe there is little that can be done about it.  Chief among the worries are high gas and other commodity prices, a weak employment picture, the possibility of higher taxes and perceived threats to Social Security and Medicare.