Sunday, April 01, 2012

The Economy: Still Struggling

While it's true that the economy is improving, it's simply not hot.  Here's another piece of evidence:

The first graph shows real personal income less transfer payments in 2005 dollars. This has been slow to recover - real (inflation adjusted) personal income less transfer payments decreased slightly in February. This remains 4.2% below the previous peak in early 2008.

"Transfer payments" are Gummint payments such as UC, SocSec payments, and EIC.

IOW, earned personal income is still 4.2% below 2008 levels. 

HT:  CalcRisk

5 comments:

neomom said...

Where is this great recovery? Official unemployment in our area is 11.3%... well over 20% when you include everyone who has given up looking.

The evil multinational is not thriving under the rent-seeking either. There were more RIF's in the MKE area in Jan/Feb even though they were not reported heavily. And under the Obama no-energy policy, one can imagine the belt-tightening in those biz's...

Jim said...

And under the Obama no-energy policy, one can imagine the belt-tightening in those biz's...

Which energy "biz's" are belt tightening these days? Since domestic production is the highest in years, I'm trying to figure out how any of them are tightening their belts.

Dad29 said...

The above, NeoMom, is what Jim calls 'intelligent argument.'

neomom said...

The energy industry is what is known as "long cycle".

What is happening today is not due to Obama, but the previous administration. So the cash flow is currently OK. But the orders are waaaaaaay down. So cash flow going forward isn't looking so good. Unlike the government, we have to look at that reality and start adjusting the way we do business accordingly now.

Or should I draw pictures?

neomom said...

Of course that is really only for the oil/gas industry. It is even worse for the utilities. Demand is down because of the recession. Regulations and costs are up because of the Obama EPA, so the utilities are getting squeezed. They have put off upgrades, expansions and all but necessary maintenance along with rate increases to their customers. Remember that 70% of the US electricity supply comes from coal and nuclear.

Since the utilities aren't spending, it also hurts those businesses that do that work - like outage services or turbine maintenance.

I know Dad - I might as well be talking to the wall...