Household Income Gets Back to Pre-Recession Level

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Thursday June 02, 2016 · 1:05 AM PDT

2016/06/02 · 01:05

no image description available — Happy Daze

One of the soft spots in this recovery has been the sagging household income. Everyone from Bernie Sanders on the left, to your usual opportunists on the right, have been regularly reminding us of that. The problem with this particular metric, aside from household formation changes, is that the Census Bureau does not update this number on a timely basis. The latest household income number from the Census Bureau is the 2014 figure:

Official Census Bureau Household Income Chart

As you can see- the last data point was 2014. Well, it turns out that Sentier Research has been compiling their own Median Household Income series using raw data from the Census Bureau. They are able to put out much more up-to-date numbers.

Up-to-date Household Income trend from Sentier Research

Their latest figures show that, as of April 2016, the real median household income at $57,243, has fully caught up with the pre-recession figure of $56,900 recorded back in Dec 07. It is also caught up with the $57,143 recorded back in Jan 09, when President Obama took office. So if anyone starts with that ‘But Household Income dropped under Obama’ argument, you can shut them down with up-to-date numbers.

As an aside, another data point to ponder, is the BLS Median Weekly Wage. This statistic is a measure of the median wage of a full time worker, and is not affected by changing household formation trends.

BLS Median Weekly Wage at constant 1982 dollar

As of Q1 2016, the Median Weekly Wage of a full time worker is $346 (in 1982 dollars), — the highest ever recorded since this data series began in 1979.

So I caused the drop in the Labor Force Participation

icemilkcoffee

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Monday September 21, 2015 · 9:09 AM PDT

2015/09/21 · 09:09

In recent years there has been a lot of hand wringing over the drop in Labor Force Participation Rate, which has fallen from a peak of 67.3% back in 2000, down to 62.6% now.

Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate 1997 - Aug 2015. BLS data.

In order to get a handle on the issue, I did a few back-of-the-envelope calculations, and found that I have met the enemy. It is me. Read More

The Free Market just vetoed Keystone XL

icemilkcoffee

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Thursday November 13, 2014 · 9:21 AM PST

2014/11/13 · 09:21

I apologize for this short diary today. As oil prices drop into the $70's, Tar sand oil from Alberta, which costs more than $85 just to extract, no longer make economical sense. So even if the GOP crams through Keystone XL, it is not going to be built in the near future. It will be a Pyrrhic victory, just like all their other right wing 'victories'.

icemilkcoffee

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Friday July 11, 2014 · 9:26 AM PDT

2014/07/11 · 09:26

If you have been watching the news for the past week, you would have had the impression that the entire southern border has been overrun by illegal immigrant youths lured in by Obama's Dream Act deferrals, while border guards are reduced to wringing their hands helplessly. In reality, none of that is even remotely true.

icemilkcoffee

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Saturday March 08, 2014 · 9:00 AM PST

2014/03/08 · 09:00

If you have ties to the chinese american community here in California, you have no doubt seen a torrent of chain emails railing against SCA-5 this past 2 weeks. SCA-5 is a state constitutional amendment to overturn Prop 209 and re-instate race-based affirmative action to college admissions. This issue has politicized asian americans like you wouldn't believe, in a way that serves as a cautionary tale to state Democrats.

icemilkcoffee

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Thursday September 13, 2012 · 10:24 PM PDT

2012/09/13 · 22:24

Here in the land of the free, you can blaspheme god and man all you want, but you best watch your mouth around perishable vegetables and meats. Diane Sawyer and ABC News just got hit with a $1.2 billion lawsuit by Beef Products, Inc. in South Dakota- a state which has so-called 'veggie libel laws'. Apparently ABC had slimed a beef product known as 'lean, finely textured beef', AKA Pink Slime.

icemilkcoffee

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Thursday May 31, 2012 · 9:00 AM PDT

2012/05/31 · 09:00

We've all seen this movie before. In 2009 ACORN got ambushed by a sting video, and the Democratic congress panicked and gutted ACORN. Subsequent investigations (CRS, MA Attorney General, CA Attorney General) found that ACORN had done nothing wrong in these sting videos. The supposed sting video was revealed to be selectively edited and phonier than a 3 dollar bill. But all that vindication came too late - Congress already killed ACORN. Not even a year later- USDA appointee Shirley Sherrod was ambushed with another gotcha video from Breitbart. Tom Vilsack fired her summarily. And then he found out that her quote was taken completely out of context, and her speech, far from being racist, was actually a personal testimony against racism. Sherrod was vindicated, but the Obama administration's tragicomic incompetence was on the front page for a solid week.

icemilkcoffee

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Thursday September 22, 2011 · 8:00 AM PDT

2011/09/22 · 08:00

First of all, let me start by saying that I agree wholeheartedly that the DA and the police have commited practically every prosecutorial abuse possible here: biased line-up identification, interrogation and coercion of minors without their parents' presence, use of jail house snitches, staged re-enactments with witnesses, and pressure on witnesses to converge their stories.

However that doesn't mean Troy Davis is innocent.

icemilkcoffee

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Wednesday September 21, 2011 · 8:00 AM PDT

2011/09/21 · 08:00

The recent high profile and increasingly suspicious collapse of Solyndra has left the Obama Administration looking like a bunch of dolts. The right wing noise machine is just besides themselves that Obama has bet and lost $535 million on Solyndra loan guarantees. Lost in the noise however is yesterday's breakthrough announcement from First Solar, another american solar panel pioneer.

icemilkcoffee

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Friday April 23, 2010 · 6:49 PM PDT

2010/04/23 · 18:49

Here is some good news to start your weekend on. Timothy Geithner just announced that the total costs of the bailouts are projected to be only $87 billion.

Poll

49 votes Show Results

Is this wonderful news or what?

49 votes Vote Now!

Is this wonderful news or what?

Love it love it love it!

24 votes

But, but, but I still want to kick Tim Geithner in the nutsack

14 votes

Adios Tea Party movement!

3 votes

pie

2 votes

I'll have 2 servings of pie

6 votes

Taking the pulse of Immigration Reform: Who should be legalized?

icemilkcoffee

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Thursday March 25, 2010 · 2:44 PM PDT

2010/03/25 · 14:44

With Health Care Reform on the home stretch, I would like to switch gear and talk about the powderkeg issue of Immigration Reform. Even within the comfortable confines of DailyKos, Immigration Reform is a controversial subject. In order to understand our differences better, I am doing a "Sense of the Kos" survey in order to see where we, as a community of progressives, stand on this issue.

Poll

58 votes Show Results

Who should get amnesty?

58 votes Vote Now!

Who should get amnesty?

Nobody

20 votes

People with specialized knowledge and skills

4 votes

Low wage menial laborers

1 vote

People with 5 years of proven work history

13 votes

People with 5 years of residency

5 votes

People who have lived in this country since before the bill was introduced

14 votes

People under the age of 30

1 vote

Cram Session: Cliff Notes on the House Reconciliation

icemilkcoffee

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Friday March 19, 2010 · 3:42 AM PDT

2010/03/19 · 03:42

This is a late night cram session on the House Reconciliation Act. So curl up on the couch and join the study group:

Full text:
http://docs.house.gov/...
summary:
http://docs.house.gov/...

Due to the late hour and my brain's impending shut-down, this diary will just be slap-dash Cheat sheet style. Without further ado....

Newer
Older

RSS

Household Income Gets Back to Pre-Recession Level

So I caused the drop in the Labor Force Participation

The Free Market just vetoed Keystone XL

Border completely overrun.... or maybe not

Groundswell of asian american opposition to affimative action

The Prophet Mohammed and ground beef

Planned Parenthood's messaging fail

I am not convinced of Troy Davis' innocence

Obama: not a chump

Good news: Total Bailout costs only $87 Billion

Taking the pulse of Immigration Reform: Who should be legalized?

Cram Session: Cliff Notes on the House Reconciliation