From an interview with Barack Obama aired on CNBC tonight;
“We know that over the last decade or so that more than half the economic growth has been captured by the top 1% of US citizens. That means the other 99% have seen their effective incomes go down. That is not a recipe for long term economic growth.”
I’m sorry – if half the gain went to just the top 1%, the remaining gain went to the rest of the people. Let me be clear, I am not suggesting this is ‘fair’ or that I’d advocate policy that would perpetuate it. I offer the following chart, which supports Obama’s intentions;
My issue, and reason for this post is that I believe precision is important. If all (100%) of the gains had gone to the top 1% of earners, then the rest of us would have remained level. It would take for the top X% to increase more than 100% of whatever gains occurred in a given period to impact the statistics so the rest of us would have lost ground. Please, Mr. Obama, the facts are bad enough, use them to your advantage. Learn to speak about the numbers and the numbers will speak for themselves.
(Note – click on the image above to read the entire article from the CPBB)
Joe
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Back on May 2, I posted “No Recession Yet” where I mention that GDP growth in the first quarter was .6%. As often happens, that number was revised, as shown, up to .9%. One more revision on June 26, that’s it.
Not stellar growth, but enough to keep us above Bagel territory.
Joe
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Last week, I read a story on SmartMoney.com stating that American Airlines was planning to charge $15 per checked bag. Here’s my response, also posted on the SmartMoney web site;
Have they really thought this through? This change in policy will have an ‘unintended consequence’ that will quickly become apparent.
As a frequent flier on American, I’ve noticed that when a flight is pretty full there’s a good chance that right as the last passengers are boarding, they realize there’s no room for their bags, the overheads are full. Now, it won’t take much to tip things to be even worse. If even 10% of the fliers decide that the $15 for the checked bag is not worth it, the overheads will fill on a more regular basis. That last few minutes of scrambling will become even longer, and flights will be delayed as those bags need to leave the cabin to get loaded into the belly of the plane. When I first heard there was talk of charging for bags, I thought they would charge for the carry ons, not checked luggage. Too bad.
Joe
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A great political / finance cartoon from last week’s Denver Post, it really speaks for itself.
Enjoy the weekend,
Joe
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From an Op-Ed piece in a recent New Your Times story titled, “Dumb as We Wanna Be“:
“Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December.”
Dumb, indeed. Our congresspeople are talking about windfall profit tax out of the left side of their mouths while voting for oil and gas credits from the right. As Seinfeld would say, “what’s up with that?”
Joe
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