Look at inflation numbers

[Ripmany]

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by Ripmany

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm

6.8%, a 39 year high. After the huge stimulus spending in 2020, opposed by a few brave souls like Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Justin Amash, Biden’s American Rescue Plan was the icing on the cake, the gasoline on the fire. Even Larry Summers was warning about the inflationary effects.

Also we need a Fed that doesn’t follow the precepts of Recep Erdogan, the Turkish president. We’re now in the same league with Turkey. Inflation is outpacing short term interest rates in both countries by about 6.5%.

[Salty Again]

... Now, now there, mate... surely dont wanna paint a
less-than-rosy narrative here... The other liberal lads
will be here in short order to put a "Great Economy"
spin on this...

### Salty

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by Salty Again

... Now, now there, mate... surely dont wanna paint a
less-than-rosy narrative here... The other liberal lads
will be here in short order to put a "Great Economy"
spin on this...

### Salty

Well, the argument will start with “Look at how great the stock market is doing. And at GDP growth.” Let’s see how that plays out when the Fed raises rates. Or when inflation really kicks into overdrive if it doesn’t.

[Jacuzzme]

A simple graphic showing disposable income. When wages (blue line) are above inflation (red line) our income is growing, life is good and the working class has more disposable income to enjoy life. However, when wages (blue line) are lower than inflation (red line) our income is shrinking, life is a struggle and the working class has less disposable income to enjoy life.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by Jacuzzme

A simple graphic showing disposable income. When wages (blue line) are above inflation (red line) our income is growing, life is good and the working class has more disposable income to enjoy life. However, when wages (blue line) are lower than inflation (red line) our income is shrinking, life is a struggle and the working class has less disposable income to enjoy life.

Excellent graph, thanks. There was an editorial in the Wall Street Journal yesterday with a graph showing the monthly declines in inflation adjusted wages since the start of the year. It looked sad. Here's something from back in 2020, related to the pre-COVID part of your curve,

Originally Posted by Tiny

The Census Bureau reported median household income for 2019 a couple of weeks ago.

Please note that "median" doesn't mean the same as average. It means the middle number. Fifty percent of American households in 2019 made less than the median income and fifty percent made more. So this number is very representative of how the middle class is faring.

The 2019 figure is striking, $68,703 per household, up 6.8% from 2018. During Obama's entire 8 years in office, coming out of a recession which should have goosed growth and wages, the increase was only 5.8%

This is very good news. The middle class did not do particularly well during the period of time when George W. Bush and Barrack Obama served as presidents. (Aside: I don't place the blame primarily on those two leaders -- there are many other factors that affect income growth besides what the president does or does not do.)

In fact, median household income when Obama left office had barely budged since 1999 and 2000, when the policies of a Republican Congress and President Clinton (welfare reform, a balanced budget, free trade, a lower capital gains tax) helped usher in a golden age. See this chart and click on "Max" for some historical perspective: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

So what happened? I believe a huge part of the reason for the growth in median household income last year was the Ryan/Trump tax cuts for corporations, and for pass through businesses with lots of employees, which went into effect in 2018. Trump's deregulation helped as well. Businesses expanded. There was more competition for labor. Unemployment went down. Wages went up.

The Wall Street Journal published a piece on the Census numbers. It wasn't just the middle class that did well:

Poverty fell 1.3 percentage points last year to 10.5%, the lowest level since 1959, and declined more for blacks (2 percentage points), Hispanics (1.8), Asians (2.8), single mothers (2.6), people with a disability (3.2), and no high-school diploma (2.2). The black (18.8%) and Hispanic (15.7%) poverty rates were the lowest in history.

As family household incomes increased, the child poverty rate also declined to 14.4% from 16.2% in 2018 and 18% in 2016. The decline in childhood poverty last year was nearly twice as much as during the entire Obama Presidency. The most pro-family policies are those that increase jobs and wages.

Income inequality last year also declined by most measures as the bottom quintile’s share of income grew 2.4%.

The share of households making less than $15,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars declined to 9.1% last year from 10.4% in 2016 and 11.2% in 2010. At the same time, the share with income between $75,000 and $200,000 increased to 36.1% from 34.4% in 2016 and 32.8% in 2010 while the percentage earning more than $200,000 ticked up to 10.3% from 8% in 2016 and 5.9% in 2010.

In other words, all Americans were gaining economic ground. But lower and middle-class Americans enjoyed the largest gains relative to the Obama Presidency.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hig...s&page=1&pos=1

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Eccieuser for participating in my series of "For Eccieuser" threads, and for reciprocating with a couple of "For Tiny" threads as well. I am trying to enlarge my audience, and in the hopes that three or four people who are left of center will read this post instead of just one, I have titled it "For Esteemed Posters on the Left", instead of "For Eccieuser."

I would also like to thank some of the posters here who suffer from TES (Trump Enlightenment Syndrome), who showed me that there's a way to put words that start with t, like Tiny and Trump, in tiny text.

[tobias1988]

whoa hold off on the sexy yet meaningless short term graphs. I do not need that to know that inflation is at ominous levels Who knew that massive spending and borrowing during a period of labor and goods shortages might increase inflationary pressures, excerpt everyone

[nevergaveitathought]

I'm rounding of course:

petrol up 40%

electricity up 40%

food up 20%

housing up 30%

Autos up 20%

and the government averages all the above with the decline in the cost of a bill and hellary clinton speaking tour ticket

and our inflation rate is only 6.8%

[Salty Again]

Originally Posted by tobias1988

whoa hold off on the sexy yet meaningless short term graphs. I do not need that to know that inflation is at ominous levels Who knew that massive spending and borrowing during a period of labor and goods shortages might increase inflationary pressures, excerpt everyone

... Who knew? ... Everyone but Biden and the Dems, I reckon!

#### Salty

[the_real_Barleycorn]

The big step will be to finally accept that inflation is here and it is bad....and it's Trump's fault.

[WTF]

Things aren't that bad for those invested in the market.

Maybe Biden should hire Trump as his spokesman!

Because that was where all this stimulus money was going to wind up!

Are things really that bad? Or are we spoiled af?

[Ripmany]

Originally Posted by nevergaveitathought

I'm rounding of course:

petrol up 40%

electricity up 40%

food up 20%

housing up 30%

Autos up 20%

and the government averages all the above with the decline in the cost of a bill and hellary clinton speaking tour ticket

and our inflation rate is only 6.8%

That why posted master list you get hold numbers


Even one thanks for you replys.

[tobias1988]

I joined for the hookers; I stayed for this

[Jacuzzme]

Originally Posted by WTF

Are things really that bad? Or are we spoiled af?

Not for most here, I’d assume. If you’re banging hoes at $300+/hr you’re probably ok and a few hundred a month for high energy, and everything else, costs is no big deal. This place isn’t a microcosm of society tho. Upping the cost of living, so far and so fast, is a ball breaker for at least 100 million people. .

[Salty Again]

Originally Posted by Jacuzzme

Not for most here, I’d assume. If you’re banging hoes at $300+/hr you’re probably ok and a few hundred a month for high energy, and everything else, costs is no big deal. This place isn’t a microcosm of society tho. Upping the cost of living, so far and so fast, is a ball breaker for at least 100 million people. .

... 100 MILLION! Crikey! ... That's A LOT!

... Lemme do the mathmattics there... uh.. 330.. no multiply
.. no divide the thing... seven-come-eleven... AND:

Ye Christ! ... 100 Million is roughly 30% of the
population in America.

... In terms of being a good President with things
Sleepy Joe IS KILLING IT.

#### Salty