The Heart of the Matter
By Invictus - August 26th, 2011, 11:30AM
Some of the factors that have landed us in the mess we're in have been building for decades, and there's ample evidence on which to draw to demonstrate that fact. In looking at a few of these issues, I'll draw on some charts I've presented both here and elsewhere before. A couple are replicated from this outstanding study in January's Monthly Labor Review (MLR).
Let's begin by referencing a recent piece by Stephen Roach that accurately assesses what's really wrong with our current economy, summed up in one number:
The number is 0.2%. It is the average annualized growth of U.S. consumer spending over the past 14 quarters – calculated in inflation-adjusted terms from the first quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2011. Never before in the post-World War II era have American consumers been so weak for so long. This one number encapsulates much of what is wrong today in the U.S. – and in the global economy.
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TheNewGildedAge.blogspot.com This blog focuses on the growing inequality of income and wealth in the U.S. As Warren Buffett said in 2008: “There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
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