Posted on 06/12/2012 5:30:11 AM PDT by lbryce
The recent recession wiped out nearly two decades of Americans’ wealth, according to government data released Monday, with middle-class families bearing the brunt of the decline.
The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.
The data represent one of the most detailed looks at how the economic downturn altered the landscape of family finance. Over a span of three years, Americans watched progress that took almost a generation to accumulate evaporate. The promise of retirement built on the inevitable rise of the stock market proved illusory for most. Homeownership, once heralded as a pathway to wealth, became an albatross.
The findings underscore the depth of the wounds of the financial crisis and how far many families remain from healing. If the recession set Americans back 20 years, economists say, the road forward is sure to be a long one. And so far, the country has seen only a halting recovery.
“It’s hard to overstate how serious the collapse in the economy was,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics. “We were in free fall.”
The recession caused the greatest upheaval among the middle class. Only roughly half of middle-class Americans remained on the same economic rung during the downturn, the Fed found. Their median net worth — the value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt — suffered the biggest drops. By contrast, the wealthiest families’ median net worth rose slightly.
Americans have tried to rebalance the family budget but have found it difficult to reverse the damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
For as long as I remember this is how it's been.
Thanks Obama
the wealth got siphoned off and wasted by the government, or it ended up in the pockets of our government officials
While I love the internet, and would go crazy without it, I have to state that it has caused more cultural change, upheaval, and degradation of society then most any other phenomena in history.
I really don’t know much about national economics but when beenie babies became investments I knew something was amok.
The peak of a housing bubble fueled by insane amounts of funny money lending is not a good baseline for "wealth".
And you may not like the fact, but the housing bubble took place entirely on Bush's watch. All he had to do was to make it clear that there would be no bailouts of any institution which made bad bets on mortgages, and much of the 2008 chaos could have been prevented.
Started when the Democrats took over the House...Hmmmm
The Obama Effect.
2007-2010, the years of Democratic controlled Congress.
Government induced real estate bubbles can do that. In reality, there wasn’t much real wealth. Imagine if everyone tried to turn that house equity into cash at the same time. If everyone tried to cash their 401K at the top of the market.
It was on paper.
This is just the numerical results of our long road through deflation. There is still a large amount of debt that has to be de-leveraged so I wouldn’t look for any great economic rebound no matter who will become President. It would just be more painful and wasteful under Obama.
Obama originally planned on miraculously helping all those in dire need financially, thus buying his second term, problem is America has wizened up to his drug dealer style of manipulation.
Everyone I know locally are at near rock bottom, my company which usuallhas nearly a dozen employees has but just three, the construction contractors I know are seeing fewer and smaller jobs.
America just decided to shut down, to sit down, to reject Obamas “stimulus” to reject his ideology, to reject his Healthcare.
Obama has pissed off America, they may be the sheep and Obama the Shepard, problem is the sheep are are refusing to move, refusing to eat, refusing to be a flock for the Shepard.
Obama just doesn’t get it, America is saying NO to him by refusing to cooperate. The day Obama gets the door banging his backside it will be a non stop party across America.
Spot on. This so-called “wealth” was a bubble with nothing but air underneath it.
Thanks LIBs, DIMs and RINOs. Thanks a lot...you sghould all be in prison.
Thanks LIBs, DIMs and RINOs. Thanks a lot...you should all be in prison.
Well.....there’s some of that “Change” that he promised everyone.
Remember the advertising on television and radio? "Consolidate your bills?" "Upgrade your car, kitchen, family room?" "Take that dream vacation?"
All of that economic activity was fueled by the housing boom--artificially inflating the value of housing, while simultaneously taking perceived equity out. Combine that with "junk" mortgages--those mortgages offered to those with less-than stellar credit...it was the perfect storm for the financial markets.
Exactly, this is just phantom housing wealth evaporating. You cannot blame Obama for that.
I told anyone who would listen that the 2006 elections were going to be the most important of our lifetimes.
If the Media could convince the sheeple that 4.9% unemployment was “ THE WORST ECONOMY SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION!!”, they could convince them of ANYTHING.
Sadly, I have not been proven wrong by events.
The difference is that no one -needs- beanie babies to survive.
When housing, a necessity, is pumped up in price due to massive floods of Monopoly money, then even Joe Sixpack who just wants to buy a modest house for his wife and kids is forced to take on a suicidal mortgage to get a roof over their heads.
A lot of that happened in 2002-2006, while Democrats were in charge of neither the WH nor Congress. To blame this exclusively on the Democrats is, quite simply, to lie.
The private sector is doing fine!
We need to help those in the government sector!
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