The American dream myth: Income mobility; 4 out of 5 Americans struggle with poverty, joblessness, or go on welfare at some point during their lives; and bottom 80 percent of Americans control 7 percent of total wealth.
There is an odd sort of Greek-like mythology that the American dream is only getting stronger when various pieces of economic data clearly show that this is not the case. The middle class has noticeably shrunk over the past few decades. Income inequality is at levels last seen during the wildly opulent Gilded Age. We […]
Who controls the wealth in the US? Western countries expand balance sheets at the expense of their younger population.
If the debates reflected the true interest of what Americans have on their mind the entire debate would revolve around the slow erosion of the US middle class. Yet this is something that will only be a footnote and for any discussions that do come up the specifics will be lacking. The reality is we […]
The modern day Gilded Age – in 2010 top one percent captured over half of all income gains. From early 2009 the S&P 500 is up 109 percent but home prices are at new lows falling almost 34 percent.
Most Americans derive their net worth from the equity built up in their homes. This has been the case for many decades. As the stock market races upwards to stratospheric highs it is hard for many average Americans to understand why it is that economically they are stuck in the same place. New tax data […]