Bernanke’s
Bust: Median Household Income Is Lower Today Than in 2009 by Gary North - The
Tea Party Economist | August 24, 2013
Median household income
is a good test of a household’s economic well-being.
Half of households earn more. Half earn less.
With mean average income, the incomes of
the rich skew the figure upward. Not with median income.
After four years of the Federal Reserve’s
tripling of the monetary base, Americans are worse off today.
What’s that? Worse than in the supposed
bottom of the recession? Yes. This report tells the story.
Household income is down 4.4%.
Based on new estimates derived from the
monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), real median annual
household income, while recovering somewhat from the low-point
reached in August 2011, has fallen by 4.4 percent since
the “economic recovery” began in June 2009.
Adding this post-recession decline to the 1.8-percent
drop that occurred during the recession leaves median
annual household income now 6.1 percent below the December
2007 level.
Sentier Research supplied
these figures. Here is the company’s assessment. “Based
on our data, almost every group is worse off now than it was
four years ago, with the exception of households with householders
65 to 74 years old.”
This means we were far better off in 2007, before the recession
began. What are the numbers?
After adjusting for changes in consumer
prices, median annual household income declined during
the officially-defined recession from $55,480 in December
2007 to $54,478 in June 2009. During the “economic
recovery”, as the unemployment rate and the duration
of unemployment remained high, median annual household
income continued its decline, reaching a low point of
$50,722 in August 2011. As of June 2013 median household
income had recovered somewhat to $52,098 (seasonally adjusted
estimates).
It gets worse. It turns out that Greenspan
failed, too. We are worse off than in 2000.
Compared to January 2000, the beginning
point for our monthly statistical series, median annual
household income is now lower by 7.2 percent. (All income
amounts in this report are before-tax money income and
are presented in terms of June 2013 dollars)
You knew you were not doing
better. Obama has told you otherwise. So has the Federal Reserve.
They lie. They never factor in purchasing power —
what the Federal Reserve has done to the dollar.
Next month, a new movie will hit the theaters, Money for
Nothing. Go see it.
