That Sinking Feeling

Comrade Max's boss, Jared Bernstein, is blogging at Max's place. He makes some interesting points against the economic happy talk speeches Bush is giving these days:

· Over the course of the current economic expansion, real GDP is up 15%. · The Congress is busy killing a moderate minimum wage increase while working diligently to repeal the estate tax. · Profits as a share of national income are at a forty-year high. The share of income accruing to the top 1%, after falling in the wake of the dot.com bust, is again on the rise. · Productivity is up a stellar 15% over this recovery. Real hourly wages of non-managers are up bupkes (-0.6%). · New economy cheerleaders expound on the great job market, yet employment growth is up only 2% over this business cycle. The growth for the comparable period over the 1990s cycle was 7% and the historical average for cycles of this length was 10%. · Over five million more people are poor in 2004 (most recent data) compared to 2000, including 1.4 million kids.

In other words, this is an economy that looks pretty good until you take a closer look at the people in it.

In other words, the data back up that uncomfortable gut feeling that most of us have had for a few years.