Economic recovery bypassing most Americans
By John McCormick, Bloomberg
More Americans continued to take on roommates or boarders than before the recession, women had fewer children, and people were still flocking to college or graduate school as a way to postpone their entry into the job market.
Those are just some measures of a tepid U.S. economy recorded last year in new Census Bureau reports that offer a portrait of a nation struggling to fully rebound from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. The data show a geographically uneven recovery in which the middle class is slipping and, on the basis of median household income, no better off than it was in 1989.
Unless there’s significant progress in the next few years, that reversal could be a watershed in American history.
“There is a remarkable disconnect between overall macroeconomic growth and the prosperity of middle- and low-income Americans,” said Jared Bernstein, a onetime chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden who’s now a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. “We’re not just talking about a fringe group being left behind. We are talking about the broad middle class.”
Amid the still shaky economy, demographers say they see a few positive trends — including an uptick in people moving — even if they appear to reflect a bottoming-out of measures collected last year, three years into the recovery.
How’s that Hope & Change working out for you now?
What does the President have to do with the economy? Correct answer: not a heck of a lot.
Don’t leak this news to the Prez.
We are going to be unanimous on this one. This economy remains bad. Recessions usually last two or three years. This is different. I think the drop in house prices was more harmful than expected. I could be hopeful if gas prices were dropping. If the middle class didn’t have to pay % 40 more for gasoline, there would be more money being spread through the economy on other consumer goods.
corporate profits at a record high. go figure.
How’s that obstructionist willfully ignorant teabagger thing working out for you?… and the rest of the country?
Thanks to the lunatic fringe in the Congress taking control of the GOP and misusing the power of the filibuster to an unprecedented degree, almost every attempt by this administration to enact legislation aimed at helping us recover from the worst recession since the 30’s has been thwarted. The visceral hatred for our President by this group of self-described “patriots” has retarded economic growth and harmed recovery and job creation and their low-info mouth-breathing supporters don’t seem to care about the damage done as long as Pres. Obama doesn’t get any credit for successful programs being enacted.
The stupidity of the austerity agenda, a proven worldwide failure approach to the economic collapse, is their unrelenting mantra. Fueled by hate radio and corporate cable “news” like Fox we are on the brink of another financial meltdown that would be caused by shutting down the government.
I don’t see these teabagger azzclowns as patriots, I see them as seditious, hate filled, anti-American losers. Putting some perceived short-term political gain before the general welfare of the country is despicable and the sooner this obstructionist minority is marginalized the sooner we can move forward.
‘low-info, mouth breathing patriots’…gotta give it to you, bijou: well stated…
Do what the government does as they counterfeit one thousand billion dollars a year.
BB, I am glad you got your weekend pass. It gets tiring and boring in those rubber rooms, eh.
A.B,, did you hit your head along the way? That kind of garbage statement needs to go the way of Palin: completely discredited and a laughing stock of anyone who has a clear understanding of the facts of this matter.
Bijou Bill hits this one out of the park, thanks Bill for cutting the mind numbing chatter of the ignorant.
Thanks BijouBill; perhaps when this comments thread begins to lose perspective like they all do here you could simply resubmit your comments, say, every five posts. You’ve said everything that needs to be said.
copper, or better, just resubmit on a variety of conservative rants in the coming months. BijouBill’s statement is a universal shut-down of all of this time wasting nut-ball dribble
Perhaps Bill could just have it printed on a t-shirt.
Bill – – – I don’t think anyone has an answer. You can rant hate at those you oppose, but people want to know what would help pull us out of this recession. By basing gasoline prices on the world oil market, the oil companies are gouging us at the pumps. They have an excuse, they blame world oil prices. My idea is to act in congress to limit oil company profits back to levels 10 years ago. Price gasoline according to reasonable economic conditions, allowing them to make reasonable profits, but no more. This would drop the price of gasoline at the pumps and more money would be disbursed into other areas of the economy. I think this would help. But it won’t happen because the oil companies own congress, both demos and repubs. Don’t insult people. What do you think about this idea.
Until we reverse the asinine conservative Sup. Ct. ruling making corporations= people and money= speech the idea that you are going to get Congress to legislate against big oil is another ridiculous waste of time so why propose it as a solution?-And if you are a teabagger insulted by Bijou Bills accurate description too bad, so sad-face up to it-the nutjobs have to get out of the way of governance-
http://www.movetoamend.org
Unfortunately, TT, it’s the nutjobs who HAVE gotten out of the way of “governance”. You guys are more than happy to have civil servants make all your decisions for you, fine. Some of us are not. Some of us are adults who take our God-given rights and responsibilities very seriously.
By the way, as soon as the Supremes determine that unions are not people for the purposes of political contributions, I’ll accept that neither are corporations. And not a day sooner.
So instead of making an argument for or against why Unions should be considered as people, as corporations are, you just defer to a group that agrees with you.
How lazy.