Chart of the day

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Chart of the day

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The New York Fed reports that, for the first quarter of 2013, outstanding household debt decreased by $110 billion, or 1.0 percent, driven largely by declines in housing and credit card balances.

However, debt associated with auto loans and student loans continued to increase, by $11 billion and $20 billion, respectively.

Outstanding student loan balances, now the largest component of nonhousing debt, increased to a total of $986 billion as of 31 March 2013. That leaves an average of $24,810 of student debt per borrower in the United States.

Chart of the day

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In 2007, at the start of the Second Great Depression, 26.3 million Americans—8.7 percent of the population—were on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Today, that number has risen to 47.6 million, which means that 15 percent of the U.S. population is receiving food-stamp benefits.

What’s that you say about a recovery?

Chart of the day

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April (based on an increase of 176,00o private sector jobs and a decline of 11,000 government jobs), and the official unemployment rate was little changed at 7.5 percent.

But before the corks start popping, let’s remember that, almost four years into the “recovery,” 11.6 million people remain officially unemployed in the United States. And when we consider both workers marginally attached to the labor force and those who are working part-time for economic reasons, the total number of unemployed and underemployed Americans is 21.9 million, which leaves the broader (U6) unemployment rate little changed at 13.9 percent.

That’s what the employment situation looks like in the midst of the Second Great Depression.

Chart of the day

 

Actually two charts: corporate profits (a new record high) and wages (a new record low) as a share of Gross Domestic Product.

And Henry Blodget’s view is that

our current obsessed-with-profits philosophy is creating a country of a few million overlords (shareholders) and 300+ million serfs (employees).

It is also resulting in employees sharing less of the corporate wealth that they spend their lives creating than they ever have before.

That’s not what has made America a great country. It’s also not what most people think America or other lands of opportunity are supposed to be about.

I’d put it a bit differently: our current obsessed-with-profits philosophy is creating a country of a few million overlords (members of boards of directors of corporations, plus those who get a cut of the surplus they appropriate) and 300+ million wage-laborers (employees). It is resulting in employees sharing less of the corporate wealth that they spend their lives creating than they ever have before. That’s precisely what has made America a great country in the midst of a Second Great Depression. Even though it’s not what most people think America or other lands of opportunity are supposed to be about.

Chart of the day

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According to a new study by the Urban Institute,

While the Great Recession didn’t cause the wealth disparities between whites and minorities, it did exacerbate them. The 2007–09 recession brought about sharp declines in the wealth of white, black, and Hispanic families alike, but Hispanics experienced the largest decline. Lower home values account for much of Hispanics’ wealth loss, while retirement accounts are where blacks were hit hardest.

Chart of the day

According to a new report by the Pew Research Center,

During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%. . .

From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.

These wide variances were driven by the fact that the stock and bond market rallied during the 2009 to 2011 period while the housing market remained flat.

Affluent households typically have their assets concentrated in stocks and other financial holdings, while less affluent households typically have their wealth more heavily concentrated in the value of their home.

From the end of the recession in 2009 through 2011 (the last year for which Census Bureau wealth data are available), the 8 million households in the U.S. with a net worth above $836,033 saw their aggregate wealth rise by an estimated $5.6 trillion, while the 111 million households with a net worth at or below that level saw their aggregate wealth decline by an estimated $0.6 trillion.

Because of these differences, wealth inequality increased during the first two years of the recovery. The upper 7% of households saw their aggregate share of the nation’s overall household wealth pie rise to 63% in 2011, up from 56% in 2009. On an individual household basis, the mean wealth of households in this more affluent group was almost 24 times that of those in the less affluent group in 2011. At the start of the recovery in 2009, that ratio had been less than 18-to-1.

Now, that’s what I call an uneven recovery!

Chart of the day

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Some have begun to worry about the growth of oligopolies across a wide range of industries, and the effect this trend might have on prices to consumers.

But they often forget about the bottom line: price increases are often being kept in check—even while profits rise—because the workers who produce, transport, and sell the commodities in those industries are being squeezed by their employers.

Chart of the day

Here we go again. . .

Chart of the day

According to the latest study of the working poor by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [pdf], the working-poor rate—the ratio of the working poor to all individuals in the labor force for at least half the year—was 7.0 percent, only slightly below the previous year’s figure (7.2 percent).

This means that, four years into the Second Great Depression, the working poor included 10.4 million Americans.*

The working poor included full-time and part-time workers; women as well as men; Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Whites; college graduates and those with less than a high-school diploma; those who worked in the service sector and individuals employed in management,  professional, and related occupations; and both young and old workers.

Those workers were all members of the working poor.

 

*The “working poor” refers to people who spent at least 27 weeks in  the labor force (that is, working or looking for work) but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level (($11,484 for an individual or $23,021 for a family of four per year).