Obama’s fault.
For 8 years we haven’t had any honest reporting about the economy. Now that a Repub is in office, we can finally get some real numbers.
I expect them to finally jettison the phony unemployment figures now that they are making Trump look so good.
They can’t stand hearing that the Dow is 25000!
No surprise.
We have millions of people with poor impulse control who make poor decisions. We reward these people for having lots of children.
Of course they will outnumber those productive people who are paying to support the non-productive ones.
The poor will always be with us. Reward them and you make them the majority.
College loans contribute significantly to the debt burden of many Americans. Flooding the country with foreign labor depresses wages and takes jobs from Americans. And lousy tax policies and unfair trade agreements have caused a hemorrhage of American businesses and jobs overseas.
When you have out of wedlock birthrates at levels we have had, it should not surprise folks that these non-traditional households are radically more poor than the traditional family unit. Certainly the housing meltdown slaughtered a ton of folks, especially the lower middle class. Their homes typically are their only major source of wealth.
We just have too many people not following the simple rules of success in the US. Learn a skill. Work hard. Spend less than you make. Don’t have kids until you can afford them. Get and stay married. Now if you do those things, you are a freak.
Most “money” IS debt now.
In the 1980’s, debt was still pretty rare. Credit cards existed but were seldom used; was major news when McDonald’s started accepting credit cards (”you mean you can buy fries on credit? Really? HAHAHAHA...”). Now people basically run everything thru credit cards, so even if they’re paying off the balance monthly (*cough*) they’re still averaging a debt load.
And now the money itself is debt.
Rather than issuing cash, the gov’t dominantly “borrows from the Federal Reserve” (what I understand, oversimplified, is the Fed gets to say “$0 = ($1) + (-$1)” and loans you a virtual dollar) so d@mn near every dollar you earn, direct-deposited in your bank account, and paying the balance on your credit card or mortgage, is itself just debt (eventually returning back to the Fed and neutralizing the -$1).
So yeah, Debt-to-Money ratios suck. That’s because the “money” most of us use IS DEBT.
Since 62
Camelot again! they must be very happy since it was so wonderful in those days.
When a report like this was released a few years ago, the financial guy on the radio said they use solely savings accounts to measure savings, not investments.
Wonder if this study used IRAs or just bank accounts. Of course debt to assets will be high if only bank accounts are used. My grandparents invested in CDs and put everything else in the bank. People don’t do that anymore, you save for retirement in an IRA.
It would be interesting to construct a graph of the net worth of Freepers, compared to the general population. I suspect very few would be negative, and we’d have a fair number of very well-off households here.
$78,000 is not worth what it was in 1989, to say the least.
Well at least nobody is talking about enforcing existing 100 yr old law, the Federal Reserve Act, which MANDATES the Fed maintain “Stable” prices. Which means ZERO Devaluation.
The Fed has a current policy for a Long Time now of Devaluing the currency by 2% annually, when in reality they devalue our currency 5-8% annually
What’s yer pint?
Give the Trump economy a chance to grow get cryin out loud
Interesting net worth chart.
Net worth tanked under Clinton until Republicans took control of Congress and forced Clinton to the center. Net worth then tanked under Obama and never recovered until basically he left office. I think there is a message here. Not so much political, but economic. When the Dems get in and practice their Keynesian economics everything goes to crap, but all the promised free-stuff sure does sound great, huh? Then a Republican gets in and at minimum, puts away the populist, yet failed, Keynesian economic policies and the economy moves again, or under Trump, the economy is unleashed and explodes.
Thank you, Barack Omugabe!
Who's next? Orca?
I like Mish but question this analysis. I think it would be more useful if it was broken down into age categories. Lumping people who are 20-30 years old into the mix skews the net worth figure downward. Few young people today have had time to build a positive net worth, especially if they are carrying college debt. And yet, those carrying that debt have good prospects of building wealth as they pay off that debt.
For example, if I look at my net worth as it compares to all households, I’m at noticeably higher percentile rating than if I look at net worth of households with an age of 55+. (I’m 68.)
The real economy as large as ours moves much more slowly than the financial markets.
The corrosive effects of 0bama will be felt for some time.
Let us not forget how close to the abyss we were a year and a half ago.
People acquire debt for different reasons. Truly, there is ‘good debt’ (for investment) and ‘bad debt’ (to pay bills).
Dave Ramsey has his work cut out for him. You can’t get ahead if the banks own parts of your paycheck - period.
How can you have an accurate “Median Family Net Worth” without an accurate definition of “Family”?
save
Debt is slavery. Always avoid it.