Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story about the just released Pew Research Center survey showing global views of the US have improved since the election of President Obama.  Yawn…we know, he’s perfect and he’s going to save the world.

But (not surprisingly) the New York Times failed to report on some of the other interesting items revealed in the survey.  Mainly, that the free market remains very popular throughout the world and there continues to be huge support for free trade. 

The report states:


While most countries around the world are struggling with an economic downturn, this has not led to a backlash against global trade. In fact, as has been observed in recent American polls, this year there is, if anything, more support for trade than there was in 2008. Most publics continue to see trade as beneficial for their countries and for their families. Nor has the economic crisis led to widespread doubts about the free market. In the vast majority of countries surveyed, most think the free market approach to economics is good for society, even if it produces income inequalities.

Other interesting tidbits revealed in the survey are that the free market system is more popular in some of the world’s poorest nations and, sadly, more popular in China than the U.S. 

The survey shows:


Support for the free market approach is strongest in two of the poorest nations on the survey, Kenya (84% agree) and the Palestinian territories (82%). Palestinians are now considerably more likely to endorse free market economics than they were two years ago, when 66% held this view.  Support is also high in the growing Asian giants India (81%) and China (79%), as well as in the U.S. (76%), South Korea (76%) and Israel (72%).

Read the full report here