America
10 Troubling Signs for the U.S. Economy
Is America’s economy healed? Not according to these ofbeat-but-insightful indicators, says economist Stephen Moore.
BY STEPHEN MOORE P
resident obama keeps sug- gesting he has single-handedly saved the economy — as if he’s
some kind of economic superhero. Humility, it seems, is not one of his strong suits. In his State of the Union message
he exalted that the economic “crisis is over.” Voters, however, don’t share his sense of exuberance. No doubt struggling families with
falling incomes are wondering, What country is he talking about? There are some very positive signs
of improvement. Gas prices are fall- ing. Inflation is technically low, at least as the government measures it. The stock market has been floating
upward. But if things are so good, why do so many folks on Main Street feel so bad? Why does the future feel so fragile? For an answer, one must look
beyond the official unemployment rate and estimated GDP numbers. A host of “hidden indicators,”
metrics that are rarely reported by the mainstream media, tell the real picture of how the aftershocks of the Great Recession are still buffeting working-class Americans. These 10 lesser-known indicators
strongly suggest the U.S. economy is nowhere close to being out of the woods — not yet:
1 Real Take-Home Pay 22 NEWSMAX | MARCH 2015
This metric tells us that real take home pay has fallen for
MIS-STATEMENT OF THE UNION Obama lays out his analysis of the current climate in the United States on Jan. 20. But his rosy picture does not take into account real numbers.
most workers over the last decade. Worse yet, families today make $1,500 less than they did when the recession officially ended.
For at least half of all Americans, the current climate is no recovery at all. Blacks, Hispanics, and single women have fared the worst.
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