Poll: Americans Distrust Wall Street, Unsure of Occupy Wall Street

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Most Americans are dissatisfied with Wall Street, but have uncertain feelings toward the Occupy Wall Street movement, finds a new poll conducted by CNN/ORC.

An overwhelming number of people polled find Wall Street bankers and brokers to be intelligent, greedy, and overpaid. Furthermore, 65 percent find them dishonest and only 24 percent find them to be community-minded.

But while the majority of Americans polled assign blame to Wall Street, only 32 percent of them said they have a favorable opinion of Occupy Wall Street protesters while 29 percent are unfavorable.

Despite the spread of the OWS movement across the country, 26 percent had never heard of it and 13 percent had, but did not have an opinion.

The pollsters also asked: How much do you trust Wall Street bankers and brokers to do what is best for the economy? Approximately half of the Americans polled (54 percent) said not at all.

Three percent of the Americans polled said a great deal, 20 percent said somewhat, 22 percent said a little and 1 percent had no opinion.

In the past 20 years, Americans seem to have lost faith in Wall Street. When asked a similar question in 1990, 30 percent answered somewhat, 33 percent answered a little, and only 30 percent answered not at all, a remarkable difference from this week's poll. The 1990 poll was conducted by CNN/TIME/YANKELOVICH.

The CNN/ORC poll interviewed 1,007 adult Americans by telephone on Oct. 14 - 16. The sample included 925 registered voters.