Income | AEIdeas

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Photo Credit: www_ukberri_net/Flickr

Reagan, Thatcher, and the myth of middle-class stagnation

James Pethokoukis | April 8, 2013, 2:08 pm

The blogosphere’s reaction to the passing of Margaret Thatcher reminds one that left-wingers think the Thatcher-Reagan revolutions were terrible for average Brits and Americans. The rich got richer, they say, at the expense of everyone else who saw their incomes … read more >

Politics and Public Opinion, Polls

Money talk: Forbes’ billionaire tally

Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg | March 5, 2013, 2:09 pm

Forbes magazine released its annual tally of billionaires this week. Carlos Slim topped the list as the world’s richest man for the fourth year in a row with an estimated worth of $73 billion. Bill Gates was number two. Forbes put … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis

Why male CEOs get stingy on worker pay after having a kid

James Pethokoukis | January 4, 2013, 1:13 pm

If your company has a male CEO and he just had a kid — especially a boy — you may not be getting a raise anytime soon. From the new paper, “Fatherhood and Managerial Style: How a Male CEO’s Children Affect the … read more >

Image Credit: Marc Nozell (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Pethokoukis

3 charts that show Biden is right, the middle class ‘has been buried the last 4 years’

James Pethokoukis | October 2, 2012, 3:07 pm

Vice President Joe Biden is spot on when he says the middle class “has been buried the last four years.” 1. According to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Sentier Research, August 2012 median annual household income of $50,678 — 5.7% lower … read more >

Pethokoukis

Falling incomes: The chart that shows it’s not getting better

James Pethokoukis | September 12, 2012, 12:53 pm

From the U.S. Census Bureau: 1. Median household income was $50,054 in 2011, a 1.5 percent decline in real terms from 2010 . This was the second consecutive annual decline in household income. 2. Median family household income declined by … read more >

Carpe Diem

Expect significant ‘medal inequality’ at the 2012 London Olympics. Should there be ‘medal redistribution’?

Mark J. Perry | July 28, 2012, 9:36 am

The table above shows a comparison of: a) the shares of Adjusted Gross Income for the top 5%, 10%, 25% and 50% of U.S. taxpayers in 2008 (IRS data here), and the shares of the Summer Olympic Medals for the … read more >

Economics

Here’s why it feels like the Great Recession never ended

James Pethokoukis | June 6, 2012, 10:07 am

The above chart from Action Economics shows three different measures of compensation: average hourly earnings, the employment cost index for wages and salaries, and hourly compensation. They are all either moribund or falling. Sure, the economy is doing better than … read more >

Economics, U.S. Economy

The 3 economic charts that could crash Obama’s reelection hopes

James Pethokoukis | May 16, 2012, 11:40 am

Vice President Joe Biden is telling Ohio voters today that “things really are starting to come back.” Is one of those “things” the U.S. economy? Because as the following three charts show, the U.S. economy is struggling through an abysmal recovery not … read more >

Economics, U.S. Economy

The income-less recovery

James Pethokoukis | May 1, 2012, 8:27 am

Why does the recovery not feel like a recovery, or at least like not much of one? I think the above chart from Wells Fargo (highlighting for emphasis) pretty much tells the story: Real after-tax disposable income rose 0.2 percent … read more >

Politics and Public Opinion

If Obama loses in November, it’ll probably be because of this chart

James Pethokoukis | April 6, 2012, 10:58 am

While most of the economic focus today is on March’s tepid job growth and the unemployment rate, incomes may well play a bigger political role than jobs in 2012. And the numbers today didn’t look too hot. Wages are going … read more >