Americans Are Still 21 Percent Poorer Than Before The Recession

[girl gone mad]

Americans Are Still 21 Percent Poorer Than Before The Recession

(AP) American households saw their wealth increase at the end of last year, mainly because the healing economy boosted stock portfolios.

The Federal Reserve says household net worth rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $54.2 trillion. It marked the third straight quarter of gains. Net worth had risen 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009 and an even stronger 5.5 percent in the third quarter.

Net worth is the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and investments minus debts like mortgages and credit cards.

Even with the gain, Americans' net worth would have to rise an additional 21 percent to get back to its pre-recession peak of $65.9 trillion. That shows the vast loss of wealth people have suffered from the worst downturn since the 1930s.

[Donnachaidh]

1. wait wait -- Obama's had an ECONOMIC SUCCESS!!!!!!

see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x217715

Of course, the success is for his fellow elites. Everyone else is poorer...

[dmallind]

3. No - because Obama didn't start at the peak

He started at the trough. The equities market - which covers about half of all Americans - is up 40% since he started, job losses are down from 700K+ every month to noise level, factory orders are growing, inventory is shrinking, temps and hours worked are climbing.

Has a doctor failed when he takes a mangled person with multiple compound fractures, massive bleeding and open wounds on day one, and then a few months later sees them with knitted back bones, sewn up skin, and starting walking but still with some pain and nowhere near able to run yet?

[dmallind]

2. Quite true.

A chunk of this is in housing equity - prices overall down 11% or so IIRC. Obviously with many outliers. Another chunk is all those 401Ks and IRAs in an equity market that is off 25% from peak. Throw in a bunch of cash depletions from unemployment and 21% sounds about right. Good news is all three can improve again, some have already started to, and in the long term doubtless will.

[Sanity Seeker]

4. Oh Dexter - we have some bad guys for you . . .

Why do we buy the lies? We are not a "free market" economy. We are an economy of collusion, conspiracy, complicity, avarice, hubris, and ethical bankruptcy. When the Supreme Court, the Executive and Legislative branches of our government choose the interests of corporations, many who flagrantly lie, cheat, and steal from their shareholders and the taxpayers, we are not even close to a just or viable economic society. We rationalize regulation as an impediment to free market economics. Why are we surprised by the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations unlimited lobbying access to the balance of government safeguard against undue influence in the favor of the corporations? Corporate welfare accounts for billions of dollars of our national spending. We fund Blackwater, a war corporation virtually unregulated. We give trillion dollar contracts to the likes of Halliburton at home and abroad - their graft is well known and yet what does our government do to protect the financial interests of its citizen's tax dollars? A sixth of our GDP is tied to healthcare corporations...hmmmm...42% of our population is without healthcare. This year, we face a 30% increase in premiums for policy holders. $1200.00 per month premiums, all for the benefit of having pre-existing conditions excluded? How is it that premium payers pay for a service only to be denied of those very services? Hospitals charge $121.00 for 1 oz of liquid Tylenol x 6 doses a day. Actual cost for 1 oz of Tylenol is around 2.5 cents. Rationale - hospitals need to charge $121. to cover capital and operating costs. This equates to $120.97 cost to provide a dose of Tylenol. Bull! Sounds like robbery by a different name. Then, the American public is suppose to smile when we hear of health insurance companies who pay their CEOs 33 million a year, a billion dollar stock portfolio, and a billion dollar golden parachute. We wonder why we can't afford a sustainable healthcare system?

What do we think will happen to the average American worker when corporations have unlimited financial access to our courts and our legislature? Corporations, in our free market society get billions of our tax dollars outsourcing our jobs to other nations. Many of these corporations increase their profits by subjecting peoples of other nations to sweatshop/slave wages and conditions in which there are also no labor costs, e.g., healthcare, unemployment benefits, safety costs, or workman's compensation. Corporate justification - "well, these people (sic) are better off to at least have the work we give them as there are no alternatives for them." We have laws in this country to protect against such human usery - why are we surprised the corporations are off shore? Labor supply and demand laws tells us exactly what to expect in our country - global labor supply will drive down national wages. Then we rejoice that our stock market shows profit strength. Shameful!

Today, the average American will never really "own" their homes, and for those fortunate enough to get a college education, their loans will take them most of the working life to repay. Millions of Americans lose their homes as we lose our jobs and the banks play Monopoly with securities. Tens of thousands file bankruptcy due to medical bills. Banks take their "pound of flesh" with inflated interest and fees, all while getting billions and billions of our tax dollars, and awarding the vampires at the top at our expense. 1% of the American population owns 90% of this country's concentrated capital wealth. What does that leave in the economic pot for 270 million Americans? Why isn't our economy recovering? Why are there not jobs, the very source of economic generation? If 6% of our GDP is in healthcare, won't protectionism for this industry supercede the very reforms needed to save the bleeding patient?

In the light of our delusions and denials, I find moments of lucidity studying history for the answers, yet there is no comfort. The message is clear: "Feed them to the lions." "Let them eat cake." "Tell our people to dig for potatoes." "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Our system is broken and I wonder if we have the will to revolt, to change, to find the courage and sacrifice required for radical social and economic justice?