Six in 10 Americans think the economy is still crashing and burning

The other 40% aren't paying close attention.

(Politico) — Six in 10 Americans think the economy is still getting worse and 75 percent believe the nation is doing badly, according to a CNN poll released Monday.

The poll, conducted this weekend after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s AAA credit rating for the first time in its history, marked a 24 percentage point increase since April of people who believe the economy is in a downturn, CNN said.

“Since the question was first asked in the spring of 2009, the number of Americans who said the economy was in a downturn had never been higher than 40 percent,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “The jump in economic pessimism is across the board — a majority of every major demographic and political subgroup thinks the economy is in a downturn and getting worse.”

The three-quarters of Americans who believe “things” in the nation are going “pretty badly” or “very badly” represents a 15 percentage point increase in pessimism since May, the network’s poll found.