Free Republic

Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford. New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.” Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession. Now, after 38 months of this “recovery,” it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household. Yet it gets worse. Amazingly, incomes have dropped even more...

The median income of American households dropped to its lowest level since 1995 last year, extending its decline during President Barack Obama’s tenure and highlighting the depth of the damage to the middle class inflicted by the recession and weak recovery. According to annual data from the Census Bureau, median income adjusted for inflation – a closely watched measure of the financial health of average Americans – fell to $50,054 in 2011, or 1.5 per cent below its 2010 level and 4.1 per cent below its score when Mr Obama took office in 2009.

This is why Pew found that "85% of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living." We're working just as hard as in years past, but we're behind the 8-ball because for most of the country, wages are not even set to meet the cost of living. Indeed, some of us are closer to being poor than middle class and don't know it. The 2011 middle class median income started at $39,418 for a family of three. Yet Pew found some families making less...

The middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world. The rest of the globe looked at us in envy and wondered what we were doing right. But now everything seems to be going wrong for the middle class. Millions of our jobs have been shipped out of the country and competition for the remaining jobs is keeping wages at depressed levels. Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up and up and middle class budgets are being stretched...

San Bernardino, California – On the front door of the San Bernardino city hall is a sign that reads: “Out of Order.” Broke city, broken door: There’s a certain pleasing symmetry in the fact that the San Bernardino city council meets behind a door that, like the city government itself, does not work and is in need of replacement. On this particular evening in late July, the council has met to make public what everybody already knows: Intellectually bankrupt, morally bankrupt — the city is under criminal investigation for sundry financial shenanigans — San Bernardino is above all old-fashioned bankrupt...

Last week on June 14, President Obama announced his economic plan to finally bring economic recovery and growth to the U.S. in a much ballyhooed address in Cleveland. He threw down the gauntlet to Mitt Romney on the issue, saying “more than anything else, this election presents a choice between two fundamentally different visions of how to create strong sustained growth; how to pay down our long term debt; and most of all, how to generate good, middle-class jobs….” Truer words have never been spoken by the President. So let’s examine the two fundamentally different visions and see which can...

RICHARD RUSSELL: This Is Going To Be A Nasty Decline, And I'm Afraid It Has A Long Way To Go Matthew Boesler Jun. 5, 2012, 8:17 AM Richard Russell, the bearish author of the Dow Theory Letters, recently warned that a major primary bear market signal had been confirmed and that stocks were headed lower as a result. In his latest Dow Theory Letter, he warns that equities could have quite a distance to fall from here. Via King World News, Richard Russell: “How far will the bear market carry? No one knows. Already all of 2012's gains have been...

When the situation gets so ridiculous not even TheOnion is fit to describe it, in walks Sasha Baron Cohen and puts everything back into perspective.

The weekend produced a spate of dang-this-is-bad articles on the economic situation in California. Steven Greenhut’s for the Orange County Register is entitled “California to middle class: drop dead.” At The Daily Beast, Joel Kotkin laments that “As California Collapses, Obama Follows its Lead.” (H/t – and a “Read it, people!” shout-out – to Ed Driscoll at PJM.)But what does all this look like in terms of numbers? What’s the how much and where and whom of the Golden State collapse? Perhaps the most interesting and telling thing is that it really is as bad as it looks. And the...

A number of Civil War & History bloggers, academics, and "me too, me too" types have jumped on the "enemy of American Exceptionalism" bandwagon. Why? It's chic, hip, cool, sophisticated. You know, it's rad man. It's also the current ruling political philosophy in that cesspool we call Washington D.C. It gets you better gigs, it makes one look better (so they think) in the eyes of the world (like I care), and it also gets you noticed - an important thing for the insecure and self-absorbed (most politicians). And, of course, its also misguided and embarrassingly non-thinking. But anti-American Exceptionalism...

With Obama ruling against the Keystone XL pipeline, he continues a direction which he has maintained from the very beginning, and will only accelerate should he win again in November. Think about some of the major actions of this administration: 1. A huge “stimulus” bill, most of which went to his supporters. If you look at where most of the money from the bill went, it went to businesses which supported his campaign, it went to businesses with union employees, it went to businesses which were ideologically aligned to his vision – during the auto bailouts, there were underreported reports...

Global investment in clean energy reached a new high of $260 billion (€203 billion) last year, despite the financial crisis and the anti-environment agenda of Republicans in the US Congress, a United Nations investors' summit was told on Thursday (12 January). Data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which tracks clean energy investment, showed a 5% increase compared with 2010, driven largely by a surge of money going to the solar industry. Investment in solar power rose 36% last year to $136.6 billion. And while the US domestic political scene was riven by the furore over a $535-million government loan to...

Binge drinking rates in the U.S. are at a much higher rate than previously thought, according to a report released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found that more than 38 million Americans binge drink four times a month—consuming an average of eight drinks each time. And it’s not just young adults. Although it is more common between the ages of 18-34, those 65 and older reportedly binge drink more often—five to six times a month. The frequency of binge drinking is higher in households with an income of $75,000 or more. But the disturbing...

At 15, Jarvis Nelson should be in high school and even thinking about college. Yet Jarvis is in seventh grade, and doesn’t know where he’ll go to high school — or even where he will be living — when he graduates from junior high, hopefully next year. That’s because Jarvis has attended three different schools in the past four months. He’s lived in three different places on the North and South Sides of the city — including his most recent home, a temporary shelter in Lake View. Jarvis, like thousands of other students in Chicago Public Schools, is homeless. He...

China REQUIRES all foreign investors to give up their technology to them for the "right" to build goods there. Obama-seized GM can deny it till the cows come home, but it's still a lie. Dismantling America, chunk by chunk, piece by piece. Anybody see the tyrant-in-chief's body language, facial expressions and hand gestures, not to mention his words, at his Ohio press conference today? He simply can't hide his hatred for America. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America -- read it. GM deal moves electric car development to China -- a 'shakedown'? USA Today (hat tip Van)...

Last week the 2009-2010 Planned Parenthood annual report was released and it shows that the leading abortion group had suffered a significant decline in private contributions. In 2009 they reported 308 million in private donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations yet in 2010 they saw that number fall to 223.8 million. The chart below illustrates the drop-off:

A prevailing headline from Iowa has been the decline of Newt Gingrich, who attributes the fall in his standing to a barrage of negative advertisements from his Republican rivals and their allies. The criticism on television is pointed, but the attacks arriving by mail are even sharper and carry a far longer shelf life than a fleeting 30-second commercial. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” says a brochure that hit mailboxes this week. If the message wasn’t clear, another postcard declared, “Old Dog, Newt Tricks.” For all the talk about the confidence of Mitt Romney in the days...

"This bankrupt belief has taken complete control of our government, educational system, medical industry, and our corporations. And unless we demand better from each other and our political leaders, our society is doomed to collapse under the crushing weight of the Corruption of America. It's time we got back to our traditions as Americans and started doing more to take care of our families, communities, and ourselves." This is a small outtake of a very long article. If you have 15 minutes go and read this as the author raises some very good points about things that are leading to...

According to the official numbers just put out today by the United States Department of the Treasury, the U.S. government yesterday reached the dubious milestone of being a total combined fifteen trillion dollars in debt: Date                   Debt Held by the Public         Intragovernmental Holdings   Total Public Debt Outstanding 11/15/2011        10,314,468,105,168.02        4,719,139,150,752.30         15,033,607,255,920.32 Since Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States, the total combined national debt has increased by approximately 4.4 trillion dollars, a staggering rate...

We are in a fresh round of declinism — understandably, after borrowing nearly $5 trillion in less than three years and having very little to show for it. Pundit strives with op-ed writer to find the latest angle on America’s descent: We are broke; we are poorly educated; we are uncompetitive; we have gone soft; our political institutions are broken; and on and on. The Obama administration does its part, with sloganeering like “reset,” “lead from behind,” “post-American world,” and America as exceptional only to the degree that all nations feel exceptional. This is not new. In the late 1930s,...