Posted on 03/07/2013 2:19:27 PM PST by lbryce
Data released by the Commerce Department last week showed that personal income fell 3.6% in January, the biggest decline in 20 years. The drop was even bigger when taxes and inflation are taken into account. Real personal disposable income fell by 4%, the biggest monthly drop in half a century.
In part, this is a statistical blip. Companies accelerated certain payments – giving year-end bonuses in December rather than January, for example – so that employees could avoid higher taxes going into effect for 2013. But even if that blip is smoothed out, real aftertax income is lower than it was six months ago.
What this means is that the U.S. economy is not merely recovering from the recession more slowly than one might like, but is actually getting worse for many Americans. Despite three-and-a-half years of uninterrupted growth in real GDP and a decline of more than two percentage points in the unemployment rate since 2009, the standard of living is falling for as much as half the population, particularly if you look beyond monthly numbers to longer-term trends.
Commentators assessing a recovery in progress naturally tend to focus on changes from one month or quarter to another. But what really matters is not how the economy compares with where it was in earlier time periods, but how it compares with where it would now be if it were fully utilizing all of its resources. Economists call this level “full capacity,” and it rises over time as the population grows, technology improves and facilities are upgraded.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.time.com ...
1.Obama Keeps On Spending More Money We Don't Have, All While blaming Republicans for Creating the Sequester-cide?
2.Obama doesn't know enough about anything to get Americans good paying jobs?
3.Taxes are going up, while services are dropping?
4.Obama offers no strategy, ideas to get America going again?
5. Flies around the world on Air Force One at $750,000 per hour, gets nothing done, all while criticizing, bowing and apologizing for America's misdeeds, amoral behavior while bankrupting the country?
6. Sees how the president and his wife live high-on-the-hog while they live like hogs?
7. The president offers nothing of optimism for the future of our country?
8. Lies to the American people about everything and anything while committing all sorts of criminal acts, felonies, blames Republicans for his socialist agenda, hates the Constitution more than he does Netanyahu?
9. His ratings points dropping, global warming getting hotter, creating a huge deficit in carbon trading, gives money to companies that more often than not go out of business?
10.Americans are a bunch of spoiled, bratty whining,cry-babies?
Let me guess - BECAUSE THEY ARE!!!
Well I for one, know I have damn little to show for the money I spend at the grocery store. There’s one reason I “feel” like I’m getting poorer.
More than “just a feeling” baby!
What would make anyone think they were getting poorer? /sarc
Taxes went up for everyone at the beginning of the year and the price of food is rising at a 15 percent annual rate.
The government doesn’t include food in its official inflation stats.
GET OUT OF THE STOCK MARKET, and GET INTO PREPARING.
yep, because they are
“Higher taxes
Higher Gas Prices
Higher Food Prices
Fewer Jobs
Lower Pay
What would make anyone think they were getting poorer? /sarc”
Well, it IS what the TV told the sheeple they wanted to vote for.
But, but I was told that the stock market is up! And durable goods and real estate are up! So all is well, right?
Yes it does. Many CPI numbers are calculated. They two main ones which are quoted are the CPI-U for all urban consumers and the CPI-U without food and energy (the core inflation rate). Both of those are calculated and published every month.
Now which one gets more press time depends on what the reporters are choosing to emphasize so they generally pick the lower one when the Democrats are in charge and the higher one when the Republicans are in charge to decrease or increase consumer pain. But both are always published.
What fool would not know this Obama has stolen the life out of the GNP! What these idiots do not look at facts and figures like the Unemployment rate!
The Feds have crippled the American Dream!
Thank you O great one! Go play some more golf!
All true, and yet the media constantly tells us we're in a recovery, the economy is getting better and inflation is at near zero. I turn on the news on my way to work and feel like I'm living in an Orwellian nightmare. Meanwhile Barry and Mooch go from one vacation to another all on our dime , often to separate locations.
The Public may feel like they’re getting poorer because they are getting poorer.
Our money is being devalued by the hour,The money we invest is placed in danger no matter where we put it.A bank account,401K,Stocks,Bonds,Even gold.
There is no control over what this government can do so there is No confidence in where you can place your money.
Their homelessness and fall from the middle class is all in their imaginations. The Tea Party and NRA are trickin’ ‘em.
Really, they are freer, wealthier and more independent than ever!
Have a job, get fewer hours
Higher health insurance premiums
Higher utility rates
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