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The 7 most illuminating economic charts of 2011
The American ^ | 12/24/2011 | James Pethokoukis

Posted on 12/24/2011 9:13:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind

My Magnificent Seven. Some bust myths. Others highlight a reality the media is ignoring. Enjoy!

1. The overly optimistic unemployment forecast of the Obama White House. This may be the most infamous economic prediction in U.S. political history (helpfully updated by The Right Sphere). For the original January 2009 chart from White House economic advisers Jared Bernstein and Christina Romer, see here.

 

2. The real unemployment rate. The official (U-3) unemployment rate is 8.6 percent. But the labor force has been shrinking as discouraged workers have been disappeared by government statisticians rather than counted as unemployed. But what if they weren’t? What if the Labor Department added those folks back into the numbers? Well, you would get this:

3. Middle-class incomes have been stagnant for decades—not. It is an oft-repeated liberal talking point, one that President Obama himself used in his populist Osawatomie Speech: The rich got richer the past 30 years while the middle-class went nowhere. In short, the past few decades of lower taxes and lighter regulation have been a failure. Or, rather, pro-market policies have been a failure … except that new research from the University of Chicago’s Bruce Meyer and Notre Dame’s James Sullivan find that “median income and consumption both rose by more than 50 percent in real terms between 1980 and 2009.”

4. Inequality has exploded—not. According to the MSM and liberal economists, U.S. inequality has exploded to levels not seen since the 1920s or perhaps even the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. And to prove their point—that the 1 percent has gotten amazingly richer in recent decades—the inequality alarmists will inevitably trot out a famous income inequality study from economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Pike. But why not instead look at wealth—all financial and nonfinancial assets—instead of income? It’s less volatile and a truer measure of all the economic resources at an individual’s command. Turns out that Saez has done research on that subject, too. And he even created a revealing chart documenting the ups and downs of U.S. wealth over the past century. It reveals a very different picture of inequality in America:

5. and 6. The underwhelming Obama recovery. When you compare the current recovery to those of the past, it looks pretty anemic. And it doesn’t matter if you look at GDP growth or unemployment (via The Economist).

 

 

7. America’s debt picture is worse than you think. If you factor in the long-term impact of rising federal debt on U.S. interest rates and economic growth—raising borrowing costs and lowering tax revenue—you’ll find that federal debt could be almost 50 percent higher by 2035 than the estimates usually bandied about in the media.

 

 



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2011; charts; economy

1 posted on 12/24/2011 9:13:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

bump


2 posted on 12/24/2011 9:19:29 AM PST by JPJones (Frodo Lives!)
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To: SeekAndFind

3 posted on 12/24/2011 9:21:51 AM PST by FreeAtlanta (Coffee for your TEA party (www.dougsmugs.com))
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To: SeekAndFind

nice thread....


4 posted on 12/24/2011 9:36:20 AM PST by Rick_Michael ( 'REAL' Conservatives who witch hunt their own, are no better than Obama.)
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To: SeekAndFind

fascinating!


5 posted on 12/24/2011 9:38:46 AM PST by vanilla swirl (We are the Patrick Henry we have been waiting for!)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

thanks SeekAndFind.

The new gold rush: Amid austerity, Greeks with shovels follow myths of long-lost treasure
By Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-new-gold-rush-amid-austerity-greeks-with-shovels-follow-myths-of-long-lost-treasure/2011/12/22/gIQAw7EyAP_story.html


6 posted on 12/24/2011 9:45:55 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! May 2013 be even Happier!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Add these to the list from Zero Hedge:

Jobless Claims and General Employment Trends – The Bigger Picture

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/jobless-claims-and-general-employment-trends-the-bigger-picture/


7 posted on 12/24/2011 9:49:17 AM PST by whitedog57
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To: SeekAndFind

Good stuff...kept for posterity.


8 posted on 12/24/2011 9:50:23 AM PST by harpu ( "...it's better to be hated for who you are than loved for someone you're not!")
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To: SeekAndFind
Are the dates correct on graphs #5 and #6?

And, what is graph #7 measured in? Percent of GDP?

9 posted on 12/24/2011 10:06:23 AM PST by PENANCE
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To: FreeAtlanta
All graphs need to have three color bars on the horizontal axis. 1 what party in charge of the Senate. w. what party in charge of the House, and what party the President. Typically there is a two year lag after the a Party takes over control.

Now go back to the 20’s and generate the graphs and maybe even Libtards would get it - well maybe not.

10 posted on 12/24/2011 10:06:45 AM PST by stubernx98 (cranky, but reasonable)
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To: FreeAtlanta

Great work! I just posted the link to your charts here:

http://www.cafenetamerica.com


11 posted on 12/24/2011 11:27:39 AM PST by tsowellfan (http://www.cafenetamerica.com)
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To: FreeAtlanta

Right. This is where the Food Stamp President’s administration is hiding the data (like Michael Mann). Like Mann and the Global Warming scam, the unaltered (they call it un-normalized) data is always unavailable to the general public or any snoopy professional and you are supposed to accept their statistics and charts without question. Sort of like FDR. FDR manipulated the data and funding to ensure that just before re-election un-employment numbers plunged and happy days were here again.


12 posted on 12/24/2011 1:18:20 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (There's a pill for just about everything ... except stupid!)
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To: SeekAndFind

13 posted on 12/24/2011 3:24:50 PM PST by 4Liberty (88% of Americans are NON-UNION. We value honest, peaceful Free trade-NOT protectionist CARTELS)
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To: RetiredTexasVet

Yep. It is distasteful and builds distrust with people willing to look behind the curtain.

I want honesty from my government. Is it too much to ask?


14 posted on 12/24/2011 3:42:03 PM PST by FreeAtlanta (Coffee for your TEA party (www.dougsmugs.com))
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To: FreeAtlanta; All

Perhaps it is because a million have gone back to Mexico.


15 posted on 12/24/2011 11:06:53 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: SeekAndFind

The Left has been pushing the Gini coefficient. It’s very misleading and manipulable and doesn’t really say anything about an economy on the ground.

FR post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2823746/posts

Good comments at site:

http://persquaremile.com/2011/12/16/income-inequality-in-the-roman-empire/#comment-3742

Gini Coefficient:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

Not surprisingly Corrado Gini is a fascist and instituted much of fascistic thinking. The Left seems to always find itself knee deep in fascism. Why is that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrado_Gini


16 posted on 12/25/2011 5:44:08 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: SeekAndFind

bkmk


17 posted on 12/25/2011 8:24:24 AM PST by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: SeekAndFind

Btt


18 posted on 12/25/2011 8:42:47 AM PST by Marie (Cain 9s Have Teeth)
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