If Wall Street is any example of the feelings of the rest of the country, than everybody is miserably depressed and pessimistic about our future. Because right from the get-go this morning, stocks went down once again, though they appear to be recovering as the day progresses.

Since the Dow closed yesterday at a miserable 7,465.95, the lowest it’s been since Oct. 9, 2002, any and all gains are welcome.

I’m sure by now most investors or news-watchers have watched or read about CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s “Chiacago Tea Party” clip in some form or another. And today, a non-scientific survey from the same news base finds that out of 163,090 respondents, 93% of people would gladly attend the staged revolt. 93% is a rather significant number… even for a non-scientific poll.

If you read through comments posted on any site featuring the news, you’ll find similar outrage, with people asking questions such as why they bothered to work hard and think ahead at all, when clearly the government is willing to bail out poor decision making and hard luck cases.

And it isn’t just the U.S. or the “uninformed” masses that are angst-ridden. Today, markets around the world slid further in anticipation of Wall Street doing exactly the same. Says Matt Buckland, a CMC Markets dealer, “Investors are quite simply running out of short-term confidence with equities - especially among the banks - and as they batten down the hatches, we’re seeing these big technical levels being tested with arguably little regard for fundamentals.”

Our own Technical and Quantitative Analyst Jim Stanton had the following to say:

Maybe it’s just me but now it seems like every time the new President speaks about these bailout and rescue packages, the stock indexes respond to the downside. Things could change in the months ahead but when Wall Street reacts this way, it’s telling us that there’s not much confidence in the new administration’s plans. I also think the public is having second thoughts about their November decision as the price tag for these rescue plans continue to escalate, which could eventually cause hyper-inflation, while the banks stocks continue to fall. Only time will tell but the more the US veers away from pure capitalism, the more concerned I become.

Pollyanna Was Still Right In The End

However, regardless of whether we’re rapidly getting ourselves into a worse mess or not - and I do realize that everybody has strong feelings about the matter, myself included - I’m going to have to side with the optimists in the end.

Yes, things look bad now, and at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get worse. But don’t think that this signals the end of the world… or of the country for that matter. This is a rough spot, we’ve seen rough spots before and guess what? We’ll doubtlessly see them again. But we’ve gotten through tough times - including recessions, depressions, wars and natural catastrophes - and I can say in all confidence that we’ll be getting through this one as well.

And you can quote me on that.