<<Most Americans still believe economic conditions are extremely poor ' as if the country was mired in a deep recession. What explains this discrepancy?>>

Vast wealth inequality?

The Gini coefficient is often used to determine a countries wealth inequality. The higher the number the higher the countries wealth inequality.
The U.S. currently has a rather high 85% Gini coefficient. Puts us right in line with Haiti and Gambia.

"Wealth inequality in America has grown tremendously, to the point where the top 10% of families ranked by household wealth own about 80% of the wealth pie."

"The bottom half of families ranked by household wealth own only 1% of the pie."

"An additional sign of economic insecurity? More than 10% of families had negative net worth."

"We find that families with a four-year degree or higher are doing quite well; they had roughly three-quarters of the wealth pie."

"On the other end of the spectrum, families with less than a high school degree or at most a GED have about half as much wealth at the median than families with the same education level did in 1989."

How do we address this issue? Getting those top tax rates back up to where they were in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's, and making some serious investments in education would be a great place to start.

stlouisfed.org - Wealth inequality in america facts figures

en.wikipedia.org - Distribution of wealth