The recession is over, so they say. At the same time, they also say that the recession's recovery is a jobless one. There is no better evidence then the report from the Washington Post, which points out not just no net increase in jobs in the 00's, but also a loss of median income.
The report goes on to describe a stark reality for workers. Or rather, the report goes on to describe a stark reality for the middle class. Those in the ranks of Wall Street executives, CEOs, and others among the wealthy fared quite well. It belies the statement that the Obama administration is communist, as a communist society is a classless one.
In fact, according to the report, there has been no net job creation since December of 1999. The figures indicate that no previous decade since the 1940s has shown job growth of less than 20 percent. As job creation fails to occur, unemployment naturally increases, as our population rises.
Meanwhile, median income among middle-class households was less in 2008, the last date statistics are available, than in 1999, when adjusted for inflation. This was the first decade of falling median incomes since the first numbers were kept beginning in the 1960s.
One needn't even bring it up, as it is quite obvious with the housing slump, but the net worth of American households, who for a long time have depended on their houses for their savings, has also declined when adjusted for inflation. Their net worth, besides housing, includes the value of retirement funds, savings accounts and other assets minus debts. Since the data was first compiled in the 1950s, every prior decade had shown sharp gains.
Unfortunately, economists and analysts are still scratching their heads over the problems. While those on the left point to lack of oversight for Wall Street, those on the right, quite naturally, disagree.
Karen Dynan, co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution said, "A big part of what happened this decade was that people engaged in excessively risky behavior without realizing the risks associated. It's true not just among consumers but among regulators, financial institutions, lenders, everyone."
What will the new decade bring (which in reality, number crunchers would say, does not start until 2011)? The forecast is for a gradual recovery for the double-digit unemployment now seen in the U.S. Some, however, wonder if those jobs will ever come back.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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