When one thinks how easy it is to fool most people virtually all of the time, one must admit that the central planners, whose only remaining "policy transmission mechanism" is the manipulated stock market, are on to something. As the following chart from Nielsen shows, virtually the entire world is now more optimistic that "their country is in an economic recession" compared to last quarter for the simple reason that stock markets around the globe are much higher despite pervasive economic deterioration. Higher everywhere, except Latin America that is, and lo and behold, that is the only place where pessimism has increased.
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And yet, perhaps what is most notable, is what is left unsaid, namely that between Europe and North America virtually the same amount of people, or ~70%, still believe their host countries are in a recession. So much for the accuracy of the NBER's recession-end tracking methodology. But don't worry: when the S&P hits Goldman's year end target of 1750, we are confident that at most 65% of Americans will be certain the country is in the longest "recession" in history.