Americans feel less confident about their financial status in spite of widely reported gains in the national economy, a new study shows. The Public Religion Research Institute's 2014 American Values survey reported a majority of Americans now sort themselves into the "fair" (37 percent) or "poor" (20 percent) categories, illustrating that economic pessimism continues regardless of the fact that economists generally cite 2009 as the end of the recession. "I think this is a lesson in not mistaking macroeconomic reports with a 1-to-1 translation of people's lived experience on the ground," said Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI. The survey found declining numbers of people who rate themselves as being in "excellent" or "good" financial shape.