Middle class decline looms over final years of Obama presidency

[RiverLover]

Middle class decline looms over final years of Obama presidency
CNBC 1/18/15



Barack Obama enters the final two years of his presidency with a blemish on his legacy that looks impossible to erase: the decline of the middle class he has promised to rescue.

The revival of middle-class jobs has been one of Obama's mantras since he took office in 2009 fighting the worst economic crisis in generations. It was a major theme of his last State of the Union address and is expected to feature in the one scheduled for Tuesday.

Administration officials said on Saturday the president would propose higher capital gains taxes, new fees on large financial firms, and other measures to raise $320 billion for programs and tax breaks aimed at the middle class.

Obama's administration can take credit for stabilizing the U.S. economy, which is growing again and last year added jobs at the fastest clip since 1999.

But for the middle class the scars of the recession still run deep. Federal Reserve survey data show families in the middle fifth of the income scale now earn less and their net worth is lower than when Obama took office.

In the six years through 2013, over the recession and recovery that have spanned Obama's tenure, jobs have been added at the top and bottom of the wage scale, a Reuters analysis of labor statistics shows. In the middle, the economy has shed positions - whether in traditional trades like machining or electrical work, white-collar jobs in human resources, or technical ones like computer operators.

... But the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances shows how uneven the distribution of that stimulus has been. Between 2010 and 2013, as recovery took hold and stock markets soared, the average net worth of families in the top 40 percent of income earners grew. For all others average net worth shrank, declining 19 percent for the middle fifth.

Similarly, the average earnings for families in the top 10 percent grew more than 9 percent from 2010 through 2013, while those at other levels stagnated or shrank. For the middle fifth, average earnings fell 4.6 percent.

Over the six years through 2013, the middle fifth's average annual family earnings fell to $47,243 from $53,008 while their average net worth dropped to $170,066 from $236,525....

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102347825#.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Obama didn't fix the housing bubble?

Obama's presidency started in 2007?

Republicans and their uber-rich overlords haven't done everything in their power to block higher pay standards, tax fairness and investment in middle class jobs/infrastructure?

Nice posting of CNBC fact-challenged and perspective-free "reporting."

[B Calm]

2. So the answer to this problem is a President Romney?

[RiverLover]

3. President Warren. nt

[woo me with science]

4. And still working diligently on that neoliberal looting: TPP on the way.

We can't afford another Third Way Trojan Horse Presidency.

We can't afford more mocking neoliberal lies.

[RiverLover]

5. We REALLY can't afford it. We've got to stop it.

Members of both parties know that Obama will be out of office when the negative impacts of these trade agreements are felt. Congress will be alone facing an angry electorate while Obama is raising money for his post-presidential career from the transnational corporations who get rich off these agreements at the expense of everyone else.

Fast Track Not A Done Deal, The People Will Stop It

[woo me with science]

6. +1 We've got to end this national passivity in the face of cheering propaganda for lies,

and get people to focus on what's actually being done to us.

It must be stopped.

[pampango]

10. Yeah, because trade is the real problem. Tell that to every progressive society in the world. n/t

[woo me with science]

7. kick

[Vattel]

8. Wealth inequality and declining economic opportunity for all but the few

is something that desperately needs to be addressed. I don't know what it will take to get a President and Congress to seriously address it, but damn.

[JaneyVee]

9. That decline started decades ago.

The people responsible are the ones who voted no on job program bills, infrastructure bills, and taxing job outsourcers.

[HereSince1628]

11. To be quite cynical...when you can't fix it, you try to divert the blame...

or at least get it shared...

Obstruction is already a well accepted reason for things not happening for progressive causes. There certainly is at least some truth in that. It also papers over the part of the more difficult reality that during the past 6 years a tremendous amount of the administration's effort on the economy has been directed at the financiers rather than working middle America.

The easiest thing for the Obama camp to do in the face of Congress being in opposition hands is to start throwing programs that would help median America at the obstructionist wall.

Of course, very little will stick, but the last things that anyone will remember is the Obama administration boldly fighting for middle America. Obama will go out on a record of fighting the good fight.

This isn't all bad for Democrats strategically, because, being named aloud, those causes will shape the conversation that will determine the 2016 presidential election.

Coming in in 2008 Hope was a very powerful tool.

There's reason to believe it is still so, and the losers in poker games almost always want to get on the next hand hopeful that the new deal will be the one that provides them the break they need.

[joshcryer]

12. This thread.

Vindicates me 100%.

[woo me with science]

13. Kick. And here comes the TPP.

TPP, War, police state. Bipartisan. All wrapped up in pretty progressive words that are safe to propose now, because Republicans hold the majority.

Oligarchy Theater.

We live in a lying propaganda state. United oligarchy pretending to be divided democracy.