A new survey by The Harris Poll® of American attitudes to Wall Street finds a huge 83% majority of adults thinks that bonuses paid by financial institutions that lost money in 2008 should be returned and be paid to shareholders. An even larger majority, 87% believe that "recent events have shown that Wall Street should be subject to tougher regulation."

Most people clearly do not understand the rationale for bonuses when a firm loses money. A 78% majority thinks "Wall Street firms should only pay bonuses when they are doing well and making good profits." Only 22% accept the argument that "in order to attract and retain top talent, these companies need to pay these large bonuses."

These are some of the findings of The Harris Poll of 1,010 adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between February 10 and 15, 2009.

Several of the questions in this Harris Poll have been asked eight times over the last 13 years; this year’s results are the worst ever for Wall Street. For example:

- Those who think "most people on Wall Street would be willing to break the law if they believed that they could make a lot of money and get away with it" are up to 71%. The highest number previously was 64% in 1996.

- Those who believe that "most successful people on Wall Street deserve to make the kind of money they earn" have fallen to 30%, compared to 40% last year. The lowest number previously was 36% in 2002.

- Those who believe that "in general people on Wall Street are as honest and moral as other people" have fallen to 26% from 41% last year. The previous low was 35% in 2000, 2002 and 2003.

The poll does include a few rays of sunshine for Wall Street if not for the people who work there:

- A 54% to 39% majority believes that Wall Street benefits the country more than it harms it. However, a year ago a much larger 73% to 23% majority believed this.

- A 62% to 32% majority believes that Wall Street is absolutely essential because it provides the money business must have for investments. This is also lower, but not very much lower than the 71% to 25% majority who felt this way a year ago.

So What?

Two conclusions can be drawn from these results:

1. Many people differentiate between Wall Street, or banks and financial services firms on the one hand and Wall Streeters, the people who work and manage banks, financial services firm on the other. They tend to see necessary and valuable institutions managed by dishonest and unethical people.

2. The new administration clearly has a popular mandate for new and stronger regulation and for taking a tough line on Wall Street bonuses.