America’s Middle Class Shrinking Facts

CPI Table 2000 to March 2010

New 4.60% Tax Deferred Rate for Low Risk I Bonds

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Subject:	FWC: America's Middle Class Crisis: The Sobering Facts
Date:	Thu, 5 May 2011 08:49:11 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

America's Middle Class Crisis: The Sobering Facts

"The middle class is shrinking, which threatens the social composition and stability of the world's biggest economy."

Didn't some crank predict shrinking of the American middle-class long before the Crisis of 2007-08? Why was it so easy to forecast? When proven financial bloodsuckers and their agents are allowed to take control of the economic policy, financial markets, oversight and regulation what outcome should one expect? The Scam Market of late 1990s was the best predictor of what was to come. How is the trend to be reversed when the same people, e.g., Bernanke, are in-charge and have more power than ever before? Things would progressively keep getting worse until the Crooks and their agents are successfully overthrown.

Jas

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http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/america-middle-class-crisis-sobering-facts-141947274.html

 

America's Middle Class Crisis: The Sobering Facts

By Peter Gorenstein | Daily Ticker – Wed, May 4, 2011 10:19 AM EDT

Two recessions, a couple of market crashes, and stubbornly high unemployment are all wreaking havoc on America's middle class.

In the accompanying interview, The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task discusses the state of the middle class with Sherle Schwenninger, director of economic growth and American strategy programs at the New America Foundation. Schwenninger's recent report "The American Middle Class Under Stress" has some stunning facts that highlight the struggles the average American is having getting a decent-paying job and keeping up with rising cost of living.

Here are just some of the sobering facts:

-- There are 8.5 million people receiving unemployment insurance and over 40 million receiving food stamps.

-- At the current pace of job creation, the economy won't return to full employment until 2018.

-- Middle-income jobs are disappearing from the economy. The share of middle-income jobs in the United States has fallen from 52% in 1980 to 42% in 2010.

-- Middle-income jobs have been replaced by low-income jobs, which now make up 41% of total employment.

-- 17 million Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor's degree.

-- Over the past year, nominal wages grew only 1.7% while all consumer prices, including food and energy, increased by 2.7%.

-- Wages and salaries have fallen from 60% of personal income in 1980 to 51% in 2010. Government transfers have risen from 11.7% of personal income in 1980 to 18.4% in 2010, a post-war high.

The bottom line is simple says Schwenninger: The middle class is shrinking, which threatens the social composition and stability of the world's biggest economy. "I worry that we're becoming a barbell society - a lot of money wealth and power at the top, increasing hollowness at the center, which I think provides the stability and the heart and soul of the society... and then too many people in fear of falling down."

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For more information about Series I Bonds and Rates see:

• Series I Bonds Explained
• New 4.60% Tax Deferred Rate for Low Risk I Bonds
• New Earning Rates for Older I-Bonds
• CPI Table 2000 to March 2010