The U.S. Middle Class’s Exceptionally Long Decline — and Recent Recovery

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Bluesguy, Nov 24, 2020.

  1. Bluesguy

    Bluesguy Well-Known Member Donor

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    And with a President Biden and Democrat House and possibly Senate will it continue, will going back to Obama era policy keep the recovery going? What does history tell us

    upload_2020-11-24_16-22-58.png

    There was the 2001 recession and Bush/Rep policies helped to mitigate the depth and length and then a steady recovery up to 2007 when the Democrats took back the Congress. They did little to try and offset the slowdown that began then a year latter recession. Then as the fall began to slow they took back the WH with Obama/Biden and Biden was put in charge of the recovery stimulus. Of course that was a total failure blowing by their unemployment projections a crashing LFPR and as we see above median incomes sank. The Republicans took back the House in 2011 helped stem the fall and get things turned around and then 2015 the Senate and the 2017 the WH and we see the drastic difference as that shift occurred here and in other financial numbers.

    "....No one can yet know what dates, if any, will come to mark passages between two eras under the Biden administration. But for now, all of us, including the incoming administration, would do well to take stock of a single fact that summarizes in no small part the story of the once-brave new world that began in 2000 and ended in 2016.

    That fact: The ordinary (or market-generated) income of the median American household failed to regain its 2000 peak until 2016. In every single annual observation from 2001 through 2015, adjusted for inflation, as the chart above shows, the household at the center of America’s income distribution earned less money than the household at the center did in 2000.....

    .....Some former colleagues from my time at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (which spanned 2017 through 2019) estimate that a Biden agenda would cost the median household as much as $6,500. I hope they’re wrong. If not, however, America may end up rich in, if nothing else, irony: The era that began on November 8, 2016, may end with a return to the middle-class stagnation that created it. Who says history’s turning points can’t form a circle?"
    https://www.nationalreview.com/2020...ceptionally-long-decline-and-recent-recovery/

    So which Biden/Dem policies will keep the strong recovery going? HIs higher taxes on business and investing? His promised regulatory blitz? His making us no longer energy independent and the world's largest producer and a net exporter? The effect that will have on the economy and consumers with the higher energy prices? The harm to our national security because we have to depend on foreign sources?

    Anyone?
     
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  2. HockeyDad

    HockeyDad Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The left long ago gave up pretending that they give a damn about anything but identity politics, policing speech and crowding in as many 3rd world Democrat voters as possible. Why would you believe they care about increasing the prosperity of the average American?
     
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  3. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    History tells us that at the beginning of the Obama term the economy was in a hole, and we were losing jobs per month, by the end the economy was flying high, and we were gaining jobs per month.
     
  4. Bluesguy

    Bluesguy Well-Known Member Donor

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    The Democrats including Senators Biden and Obama took back the Congress in 2007 a years before the recession began as I noted in my OP. The job loss rate bottomed out the month Biden and Obama were inaugurated and had rapidly recovered before any stimulus went into effect. The recession was on it's backside 2/3's over. Their job was to get us into a full recovery and they promised the stimulus would do that holding unemployment to just 8% and then quickly recovering. That was their measure of success. But instead it blew by 8% and shot to 10% and stayed over 8% for the next three years and dreadfully slowly coming down but at the same time the LFPR was crashing hiding the true unemployment. It was the worst recovery in modern history because of their policies. And Biden is promising those same failed policies on steroids.
     
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  5. Bluesguy

    Bluesguy Well-Known Member Donor

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    I would hope the voters would.
     
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  6. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    Yep, you guys have to whine about how slow the recovery was because you can't deny that it happened.
     
  7. Bluesguy

    Bluesguy Well-Known Member Donor

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    Some don't even call it a recovery, economies coming out of recessions usually do so SCREAMING, by the Obama economic advisors own measure it was an utter failure. A recovery is not the LFPR drastically falling to new depths. A recovery is not falling median incomes. A recovery, how about a 33% increase in GDP last quarter and another 6% predicted for this quarter getting us back to where we were pre-Covid. THAT'S a recovery.
     
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  8. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    As long as we are recovering that is the most important part.
     
  9. Bluesguy

    Bluesguy Well-Known Member Donor

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    No it's not it's the degree of recovery, it's not a recovery when the LFPR is going over the cliff, incomes are falling and businesses are barely holding on. And the Obama/Biden administration spent TRILLIONS trying to kick the economy into high gear and it was a total failure. The only thing that got us through was the hard work of the private sector, in spite of the Obama/Biden administration, and SLOWLY we held our noses above water. It's recovering with full employment, lowest on record, and a recovering LFPR with rising incomes and manufacturing gains that most important. It as we are seeing now with a 33% increase in GDP last quarter and an expected 6% this quarter getting us back to pre-Covid days in less than a year. Economist were predicting a DEPRESSION lasting well into next year.

    But do tell me what policies will Biden put in place or try to get Congress to pass that will keep the current economic expansion going. His tax increases of business and investing? His promise to such down our oil and gas industries making us dependent of foreign sources again with the higher prices? His promise to rescind all the Trump pro-business regulatory rollbacks? His coddling up with the Chinese and letting the eat our lunch again while they pay Hunter billions?

    What is Biden's plan to keep the economy growing?
     
  10. Hoosier8

    Hoosier8 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Remember the summer of recovery that never came until 2017?
     
  11. 61falcon

    61falcon Well-Known Member

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    In 2019 long before the Covid crisis 40% of working Americans earned $15 an hour and LESS ????They certainly were not middle class. They were living well below the poverty level.
     
  12. 61falcon

    61falcon Well-Known Member

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    And they certainly haven't recovered this year with over 20 million still receiving unemployment compensation, and the number of new additions growing week to week.
     
  13. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    Nope.
     

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