Free Republic

No one can blame you if you start out in life poor, because how you start is not your fault. If you stay poor, you're to blame because it is your fault. Nowhere has this been made clearer than in Dennis Kimbro's new book, "The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires." Kimbro, a business professor at Clark Atlanta University, conducted extensive face-to-face interviews, took surveys and had other interactions with nearly 1,000 of America's black financial elite, many of whom are multimillionaires, to discover the secret of their success. Kimbro's seven-year study included wealthy blacks such as Byron E....

As we enter the Labor Day weekend when we are supposed to be celebrating hard-working Americans, we get the monthly personal income and spending numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Personal income rose .. 0.1% in July. pitab083013 compensation of employees, the core component of personal income, fell by $21.9 billion, the was the biggest monthly slide decline since May 2012. pi083013 Another view of declining employee compensation. Compensation Employees_0 And my favorite chart of declining real household income: household-income-monthly-median-growth-since-2000 Chicago Purchasing Managers Index printed at 53.0 in August, up from 52.3 in July. But there was a...

Economy: Household incomes are still down 4.4% since the recession ended four years ago. Meanwhile, the unemployment picture may be even worse than we think. The Obama "recovery" continues to impress. According to a report released this week by Sentier Research, the inflation-adjusted median household income remains $2,380 below where it stood when the Obama "recovery" officially started in June 2009 — a drop of 4.4%. Sentier's monthly data, derived from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, show that incomes fell more in the year after the recovery started than it did during the recession itself. And household incomes have...

It has been a tough recovery for Americans, particularly for the middle class. In fact, feeble. Median household income is down 4.4% since the end of the recession in June 2009. medincusa Initial jobless claims rose to 336,000 in the most recent reading. And is above the level when interest rates started rising on May 1st. ijct10 Unemployment in the 16-19 year old segment is a Greek-like 23.70%, putting a crimp in the savings ability of America’s youth. un1619082213 And Gallup’s unemployment survey has skyrocketed. 20130822_unemp_0 And the American Healthcare Act imposes a massive increase in healthcare costs on young...

I am speaking at the Cleveland Federal Reserve on September 19th on the future of housing finance. One topic I will discuss is how to address the frightful plight of American-Americans in terms of unemployment and homeownership. Friday’s jobs report painted a grim picture for the economy. Even Politico confessed that it was “tepid,” but since 81% of jobs created since March were part-time jobs, it was less-than-tepid in my opinion. In terms of unemployment by race, white males have the lowest unemployment rate followed by Latino men and African-American men. unemprAacw Note that Latino male unemployment and white male...

Peter Robinson at Ricochet directs attention to a study by the Heritage Foundation of military enlistment to population ratios by region. It tells us that, generally speaking, folks from Red States are much more inclined to serve in the military than folks from Blue States.The most over-represented region consists of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The most under-represented region is the Northeast from Pennsylvania upwards. The Mountain West — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico — is over-represented. So is Southeast. The Pacific West and the Midwest are underrepresented. The Midwest’s short-fall in the military...

Obama: "...the economy is far stronger now than it was four and a half years ago." ...as long as one ignores the reality of the following chart... We've seen macro "Hope" and micro "Reality", but for the man in the street, it would appear from the chart above that the trajectory for 'recovery' green shoots is decidedly down and getting worse... even as the President tells the American public they are so much better off... (h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)

As high schools and universities turn out more and more students (like George Mason University), I felt it was time to review the economic environment facing the young people in the US, aka “Millennials.” My conclusion? This is no country for young people. At least in the current state of affairs. Let’s start with healthcare premiums under the “affordable” healthcare act. According to a study by the American Action Forum, 45% of respondents who are currently covered report they would no longer purchase health insurance and would instead pay the penalty each year if their premium costs increase 30% in...

MADISON – While labor unions grouse about public sector pay, a state government job is a good gig if you can get it, according to the latest income data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Wisconsin, state employees earned on average $53,552 in 2012, nearly $12,000 more than their fellow workers in the private sector, based on BLS data tracked by Stateline, the news service of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The salary data was drawn from BLS’ Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages, through the fourth quarter of 2012. While Wisconsin state employees are coming off a two-year...

Real Wages Decline Again — Literally No One Notices Kenneth Thomas, Middle Class Political Economist Jun. 1, 2013, 12:09 PM You read it here first: Real wages fell 0.2% in 2012, down from $295.49 (1982-84 dollars) to $294.83 per week, according to the 2013 Economic Report of the President. Thus, a 1.9% increase in nominal wages was more than wiped out by inflation, marking the 40th consecutive year that real wages have remained below their 1972 peak. Yet no one in the media noticed, or at least none thought it newsworthy. I searched the web and the subscription-only Nexis news...

By David WilezolIn the last few months, there's been a flurry of articles in the mainstream press acknowledging the same problem: a paucity of high-achieving, low-income students at elite colleges. "Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor," says the New York Times. ABC tells us "Colleges Struggle to Connect With High-Achieving Poor Students." Likewise, NPR is concerned that "Elite Colleges Struggle To Recruit Smart, Low-Income Kids." Why does it matter that top-performing low-income students aren't making it into the best schools? After all, many other above-average schools would be happy to accept them and even give them adequate grant or...

A tax bill that would raise revenue $2.1 billion by boosting taxes on high-wage earners, smokers and corporations is headed for debate by the Senate. The bill, which also helps support a development plan pushed by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester officials say could bring thousands of jobs to Minnesota, is expected to be on the agenda once state Senators return to chambers at 11 a.m. The bill passed the state House by a 69-65 vote early Monday morning, May 20. It is one of the last major tax and spending bills the Legislature is taking up as it finalizes...

It's time to grapple with the new 3.8% tax on investment income. The ordeal of 2012 taxes is barely over. But it isn't too early to understand and cushion the blow of the investment-income levy, which Congress passed in 2010 to help fund the health-care overhaul. The tax, which took effect Jan. 1, applies to the "net investment income" of married joint filers who have more than $250,000 of income (or $200,000 for singles). Only investment income—such as dividends, interest and capital gains—above the thresholds is taxed. The rate is a flat 3.8% in addition to other taxes owed. "Affluent...

House DFLers are going after "The One Percent" in a big way. Make that the 1.1 percent of Minnesotans who earn the highest incomes. The DFL-controlled House passed a tax bill -- 69-64 with all Republicans voting "no" -- Wednesday, April 24, that creates a new, fourth income tax bracket with an 8.49 percent rate -- up from the current 7.85 percent rate -- for the top-earning 1.1 percent of Minnesotans -- couples with taxable incomes over $400,000. On top of that, the bill would impose a temporary 4 percent income tax surcharge on the 0.5 percent of taxpayers making...

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) in their weekly mortgage application indices, the Refinance Index increased 5 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4 percent from one week earlier is at its highest level since May of 2010 and the adjusted Conventional Purchase Index increased 3 percent to the highest level since October 2009. While mortgage purchase applications remain below the average from 2000-2103, they are showing a generally rising trend. Given the relative affordability of housing, it is a little surprising that mortgage purchase applications are so low. The usual lineup of suspects...

Didn't see your state on the lists of Best States to Make a Living or Worst States to Make a Living? Find it below in the full 50-state rankings. Again, these rankings are based on an analysis that considered: •Average wage and unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics •Cost of living data from C2ER (formerly ACCRA) •State tax rate information from Tax-Rates.org •The Workplace Environment rankings from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index poll Going from best to worst, here is how all 50 U.S. states ranked for 2013:

In a March 18 post on his “Economics One” blog, John B. Taylor published the very illuminating chart reproduced below. The chart, which is based upon IRS data complied by economist Emmanuel Saez, shows that (at least in absolute terms) rising inequality hasn’t even benefited the so-called rich. They, like the rest of America, would be better off today if the government policy errors that led to the increasing income disparity had not occurred. From 20 feet away, anyone can see that something bad happened to the U.S. economy in 1968. Prior to that, America experienced rapid income growth that...

<p>Nearly half — 48 percent — of American workers haven’t noticed that more money is being taken out of their paychecks for the payroll tax that funds Social Security, according to a survey released today by Bankrate.com.</p> <p>In the previous two years, workers’ paid 4.2 percent of wages (on income of up to $113,700 this year) instead of 6.2 percent. But during last year’s tax negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff, the payroll tax holiday wasn’t extended. Many predicted at the time that low-income workers would be the most hurt by the payroll tax going up 2 percentage points.</p>

Sequestration, the measly slowdown in the growth rate of government spending, was President Obama and his Chief of Staff (now Treasury Secretary) Jacob Lew’s idea. Now President Obama has signed it into law. Today, I received an email from The White House explaining that it is all the Republicans fault for not closing tax loopholes on the wealthiest Americans. Furthermore, hundred of thousands of Americans will lose their jobs … or see their paycheck reduced. Dang, I wish Obama had thought of that in the first place!! Well, this is a better forecast that Maxine Waters’ (D-CA) prediction of 170...

According to the BEA release this morning, personal income dropped by 3.6% in January, the biggest drop in 20 years. Meanwhile, the personal savings rate (as a percentage of disposable income) fell to its lowest point since 2007. As I have pointed out before, wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP continues to plummet since 1970. Of course, none of this is positive news for the housing market. The housing recovery cannot be eternally lifted by cash investors and The Fed zero interest rate policies. At least the 10 year Treasury rate is falling with wages and salaries. But...