Fear of Governments and Politicians Climb Rapidly as Euro Zone Worries Wane

While concerns about the U.S. fiscal cliff topped the VIX and More weekly fear poll for the seventh week in a row, the big story is that investors are increasingly more concerned about the governments and politicians who are tasked with finding the solutions to these crises than the crises themselves. Even though it is a global concern, fears and anxieties related to governments and politicians is most evident in the United States, where governments and politicians outpolled the fiscal cliff by a margin of 27.9% to 26.7%. Frustrations over the actions (or lack thereof) of governments and politicians were only the #4 concern outside of the U.S., where the fiscal cliff polled in the #1 slot, followed by the European sovereign debt crisis and continued weak earnings. Respondents across the globe now see enough progress in the euro zone that the financial crisis in Europe has been relega...