The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) cunducted one of their biannual surveys from February 28th - March 8th of this year. The survey questioned economists, and results showed that a greater percentage of respondents believe the deficit is a greater short-term threat to Americans than terrorism.
In the August 2004 survey, 40 percent of respondents named terrorism as the biggest threat, and 23 percent named the deficit the biggest threat. With 2004 deficit levels hitting a record high ($412 billion) and the President and Congress continuing to try to push through new tax cuts and extend old ones, it appears that many economists now view our deficit as a much more serious matter. In this survey, 27 percent of respondents noted the deficit as the largest threat, and 23 percent noted terrorism. The trade deficit, cited by 15 percent, and energy prices, cited by 11 percent, also rose in importance when compared with results from last August.
Interestingly, 70 percent of respondents felt that Social Security had problems that need to be resolved, and the solution which received the highest rating (3.7 on a 5 point scale) was raising the retirement age. Privatization of the system received a rating of only 2.7. The rest of the results can be seen here.
