Posted by Tina
What do they mean when they say the problem is structural? They mean our leaders have let us down. They mean that policies have put America at a great disadvantage. They mean our government’s agenda should be “simplicity and efficiency.” The Daily Caller has the story.
Trump has a track record of efficiency in his business dealings.
He has a plan to simplify and improve our economic situation. In fact the policy he proposes hearkens back to times of robust growth under John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
The administration is attempting to fool the people by touting cherry picked statistics. Obama recently talked about improvement in median incomes (up 5.1%) and bragged, “Thanks Obama.” The left media carried his water and the deception.
But the people will not be fooled. The whole truth is what they experience in their own lives:
indeed, the top-line claim that real median household income rose 5.2 percent from one year to the next—“the first [statistically significant] annual increase in median household income” of the Obama presidency—is true. But the overall impression given by the press corps—that happy days are here again—is false.
First, the announced income gains weren’t from 2015 to 2016. They were from 2014 to 2015. Thus far in 2016 (for which income figures aren’t yet available), the real gross domestic product has grown at an anemic annual rate of 0.8 percent in the first quarter and 1.1 percent in the second quarter—according to the Obama administration’s own Bureau of Economic Analysis. (That won’t help boost Obama’s last-place standing among postwar presidents in terms of economic growth on their watch.)
Secondly, the income figures in question come from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which the Census Bureau redesigned two years ago. That redesign was undertaken in hopes of better capturing all income, particularly retirement income and income from government transfer-payments. The Census Bureau expected that the redesign would boost income tallies by about 3.0 percent, and in fact it did almost exactly that—boosting them by 3.2 percent. (Compare “2013 1” and “2013 2” in table A-1 for the tallies with and without the redesign.)
Therefore, income figures for 2015 are 3.2 percent higher than they would have been without the CPS’s redesign—not because of any actual increase in income, but simply because of a change in how income is now measured. That change doesn’t affect comparisons from 2014 to 2015, as both years came after the redesign went into effect, but it does affect comparisons from pre-2014 to 2015. For example, when comparing median incomes from 2009 to 2015, either the 2009 figure needs to be adjusted upward by 3.2 percent to reflect the CPS’s redesign, or else the 2015 figure needs to be adjusted downward by 3.2 percent. Otherwise, the comparison is one of apples to oranges.
Once that necessary adjustment is made, it becomes clear that real median household income has actually dropped since 2009, the last year of the most recent recession. The median income in 2009 was $56,731 ($54,988 increased by 3.2 percent to reflect the CPS’s redesign). The median income in 2015, six years later, was $56,516—a drop of $215 (or 0.4 percent) during the “recovery.”
The people have a right to pursue happiness…the government has been in the way. Time to get back to the ideals of our founding…time to get government trimmed down and out of the way!
An aside: Thanks guys for holding us up over the past couple of days. Your comments have been great!
Companion article at Zero Hedge, “Harvard Crushes The “Obama Recovery” Farce With 9 Simple Charts” Click on the charts for larger view…the arrows point the way.
Thanks Tina for the great post. I knew every month when I got my bank statement my net income was declining for the past 8 years. These charts clearly confirmed my findings.
The increase in federal income tax alone has taken $2,400 more out of my pocket for estimated taxes. Not a huge amount for someone who is wealthy, but for a retiree on a fixed income I just wish I had it to spend how I want instead of the gov’t taking it spend on what they want.
Not sure Trump can fix all of our nation’s economic problems, but do know Hillary won’t. With her it will just be another 4-8 years of Obama’s failed recession recovery policies.
Trumps plans should stimulate growth and allow the people to keep more of their own money to do with as they please. They will also stimulate business investment and expansion. I’ve heard economists say that we’ve never been here before so most are a bit nervous about what the fed will do or not do as we close out this year. Like you said anything he does would be better than what Hillary has proposed. As he’s told the black community, “What have we got to lose?”
You don’t have to publish every day to keep me following. Take a break now and then.
Thanks Pie. I do feel responsible to all of you, after all, I agreed to do this. So that mean a lot.
And it only took the Harvard dunces nearly 8 years of Obumble failures to figure this out!
DUH!
The wind is blowing a gale about now. Time to re-position?
Everyone seems to have forgotten that the O’Liar Administration on day one of his taking control of the White House, O’Liar ordered that certain departments of the U.S. Census Bureau to be moved inside the White House. This was done so the Administration could control the employment labor statistics and the economy’s growth. All of Obama’s, I mean O’Liar’s quarterly growth announcements all throughout his 8 years have remained below 3% growth with an average of about 2.4% of growth. And then, here it comes folks, there’s an election to preserve O’Liar’s legacy and POOF, just like that, a new report just issued by the White House controlled U.S. Census Bureau put the growth of the economy over 5% and gee whiz folks, look what the Democrats and O’Liar accomplished while 92 million + U.S. citizens are out of work. When is America going to demand an END to all the lying and corruption the Progressive Liberal Socialists have used to damage the Country. Nov 8th. That’s when! Go Trump. No Democrat, Republican, Independent or any other party should allow this kind of government to exist in our Country!!!
Great memory Rick.
Not only have they been able to control the numbers to make a positive announcement they also quietly downgrade the numbers later when few are paying attention.
I also remember when this man earnestly asserted that he would have the most transparent administration ever.
Rolling Stone in April 2016, “Why Is the Obama Administration Trying to Keep 11,000 Documents Sealed? – The “most transparent administration in history” has spent years trying to hide embarrassing financial secrets from the public”
The Stones article places more blame on Wall Street but there is video of Gorrelick talking greedily about Fannie wanting to buy up all those toxic bundled securities. The stones article also doesn’t get back to the root of the problem…very bad government regulation. It was more kike manipulation regulation and it created a very dangerous, very bad environment. Instead the Stones article sees the problem hiding in plane sight and still doesn’t get it:
DUH! 100%! Full government control (fascism) and they think it’s “strange.” That’s because they refuse to see it was a set up from the start. The documents tell the story of a fascist move…same with the takeover of college loans.
These socialist think everything you earn belongs to them and they see themselves as the ruling class. Rolling Stone continues:
We need to see ALL of these documents and we need to see them NOW!
Anybody got an extra bar of internet soap…I need to wash up after revisiting that scummy event in our nations history. Do read the entire article if you can stomach it.