Visual Representation: What Americans, the Presidential Candidates Are Saying About the Economy

To help us paint a more complete picture of the past four years, we asked you about your personal finances now compared to four years ago. Is your employment situation better or worse? How are your investments performing? Are you spending more or less on groceries and gas?

We received 5,570 responses, and, yes, we read every single one of them. Several predominant themes emerged: the long-term unemployed, people of all ages and income levels trying to keep up with the rising cost of living, investors who recouped their losses since the crash of 2008, and small business owners who are both struggling and thriving in the Obama economy.

See the word clouds below to compare the words used most often by respondents to our survey to the words used most often by the presidential candidates during their debate focused on the U.S. economy on October 16, 2012.