Cap and Trade Has Nothing To Do With Wall Street

But I see, via David Wiegel, that 29% of the American public thinks "cap and trade" does, in fact, have something to do with regulating Wall Street. Meanwhile 24% of the public correctly identifies it as having something to do with the environment and 17% incorrectly identifies it as having something to do with health care. A slight plurality pleads ignorance. Hmmm.

One of the things that seems interesting about these results -- besides the public's apparent unwillingness to admit that they don't know what "cap and trade" refers to -- is that the respondents seem systematically biased in favor of certain wrong answers. 24% of the public coming up with the right answer is pretty bad, but it's also presumably worse than the results you'd see if the public were just picking randomly between the four possible answers. The bias is systematic.