One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown.

Utahns interviewed Monday on Salt Lake City streets generally shared that sentiment but were not as pessimistic as the 80 percent of Americans who rate the condition of the economy as poor and the majority who worry about their own ability to make ends meet.

The downbeat outlook nationally, reflected in a new Associated Press-GfK poll, set the stage Monday for President Barack Obama to use a speech on Wall Street to portray the financial sector as increasingly confident and stable. Obama also pressed Congress to act on new banking reform regulations.

Even as Obama made his case for tighter controls on financial services companies, Utahns said they had yet to see adequate protections against excesses.

"I don't think enough's been done because you still have the same people running" those Wall Street companies, said Carolyn Gale, a J.C. Penney employee from Kearns. "The government needs to do what it did with General Motors. Get rid of the old CEO and put new ones in."

David O'Bryant, a 45-year-old patent attorney from Sandy, said new regulations for the financial sector just don't yet exist. "I don't see any new regulations to monitor what's going on let alone prevent it."

While finding common ground with Americans in the

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poll on the need for more oversight, Utahns almost to a person were more upbeat about the Utah and U.S. economies.

Gale said consumers seem to be shopping and spending at J.C. Penney stores, while Laynie Markisich said activity appears to be picking up in her field of stocks and bonds.

"Things are getting better [locally], but as a whole I'm still a little fearful because there are a lot of people suffering out there," said Markisich, 26, of Bountiful.

Twins sisters Mary Mitchell and Margaret Schwartz, 73, had differing assessments, with Mitchell's perspective coming from Salt Lake City where she lives and Schwartz's from Sunnyvale, Calif.

Said Mitchell: "The national economy is kind of at a standstill, but I think the Utah economy is definitely getting better." Said Schwartz, "I don't see it getting better."

Public sentiment about government priorities also poses a challenge to central elements of Obama's governing agenda. Half of those surveyed nationally said deficit reduction should be a national priority over increased spending on health care, education or alternative energy. But not everyone, including some interviewed in Salt Lake City, is willing to cut off funding for issues they care about.

The president, in a CBS interview that aired Sunday on "60 Minutes," acknowledged the public's quandary.

"This is a very difficult economic environment. People are feeling anxious," he said. "And I think it is absolutely fair to say that people started feeling some sticker shock."

For their parts, Gale and Markisich echoed several Utahns when they said they'd like to see more spent on education. "My daughter is in the eighth grade. I paid a lot of fees at registration, then I had to pay $85 more in fees. Where does it stop?" Gale said.

From their perspectives, as 24-year-olds struggling to make a living as waitresses, Natasha Jorgensen and Alice Owens of Salt Lake City said spending on education and to provide affordable health care should be priorities.

"I have two jobs to pay for my college, and I still can't afford health care," said Jorgensen, who has a second job as a physical trainer and also studies art.

As for the state of the economy, Obama generally avoided public blame Monday for the recession or the condition of the banking sector.

Only one out of five surveyed said Obama bore responsibility for the recession; 54 percent blamed former President George W. Bush and 19 percent blamed former President Bill Clinton.

Financial institutions, however, bore the brunt of the criticism -- 79 percent of those surveyed said banks and lenders that made risky loans deserve quite a bit of the blame. Sixty-eight percent held the federal government responsible for not adequately regulating banks and 65 percent blamed borrowers who could not afford to repay loans.

In a glimmer of good news for the administration, 17 percent of those surveyed said the government's massive economic stimulus has improved the economy, a 10 percentage point increase over July. Nearly six out of 10, however, said they are not confident the $787 billion Congress approved to lower taxes and inject spending into the economy will do any good.

The White House has promoted the stimulus package as a job creator and job saver that helped keep unemployment from rising above its current 9.7 percent level -- the highest since 1983.

The survey of 1,001 adults with cell and land line telephones was conducted Sept. 3-8. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.