Stimulus // Current TV

Believe It or Not, US Economy Better Than It Seems

When it comes to our economic recovery, it is conservatism that needs to get out of... more

StewSteve
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100% PROOF! Obama is a KEYNESIAN!

Irrefutable proof. I cannot believe there are some Americans who still don't... more

Radical_Centrist
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28 days ago
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People line up for Obama stimulus money debit cards that don't work

People in NYC are lining up because they heard that people were getting a debit card... more

starfan82
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1 month ago
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Herman Cain’s Chicken Horror Flick (VIDEO)

Since quitting the Republican presidential primary race, Cain has been releasing... more

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Fox News host: Dems ‘invented’ war on women because ‘stimulus didn’t work’

By David Edwards Monday, April 9, 2012 12:15 EDT One Fox News host on Monday... more

KB723
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1 month ago
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Eliot Spitzer warns Republican austerity agenda would 'turn us into Europe'

"Viewpoint" host Eliot Spitzer argues that President Obama's stimulus... more

ctv
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1 month ago
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Welcome to the 1 percent recovery

That elite sliver reaped 93 percent of the post-recession income gains. Is extreme inequality America's new normal?

There was a brief debate focused on the following question: Would the gains of the economy continue to accrue to the top 1 percent once the recovery started, or would they have a weak post-recession showing in terms of raw income growth as well as income share of the economy? The top 1 percent had a rough Great Recession. They absorbed 50 percent of the income losses, and their share of income dropped from 23.5 percent to 18.1 percent. Was this a new state of affairs, or would the 1 percent bounce back in 2010?

We finally have the estimated data for 2010 by income percentile, and it turns out that the top 1 percent had a fantastic year. The data is in the World Top Income Database, as well as Emmanuel Saez’s updated “Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States” (as well as the excel spreadsheet on his webpage). Timothy Noah has a first set of responses here. The takeaway quote from Saez is, “the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of the income gains in the first year of recovery.”

The bottom 90 percent of Americans lost $127, the bottom 99 percent of Americans gained $80, and the top 1 percent gained $105,637. The bottom 99 percent is net positive for the year due to around $125 in average capital gains. They can take comfort in efforts by the right to set the capital gains tax to 0 percent, which would have netted them an additional couple dozen bucks.

(Also, just to show “the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of the income gains in the first year of recovery” isn’t some sort of stats juke, you can take $105,637 and divide it by the the number you get when you add $80 times 99 to $105,637 times 1. That number is 93 percent, which is the share of income gains the 1 percent took home.)

And if this wasn’t obvious, you can see the gains become quite high the farther you walk up the inequality ladder. When we discuss things like the Buffett Rule or taxing capital gains as ordinary income, it is important to see how top-heavy that capital gains distribution actually is.

This should also be put in the historical frame of looking at 2002 onward. I’m going to normalize some percentiles by their average income in 2002 and show how they have moved going into and out of the recession. This takes the income distribution in 2002 as granted — and any movements from there on out reflect changes from that income. I’m going to exclude capital gains for this chart to show it’s a deeper phenomenon than the stock market, though the effects are the same in either case (click through for larger image): http://rortybomb.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/saez_chart.png?w=640&h=368

The Great Recession dropped income for the bottom 99 percent by 11.6 percent, completely wiping out the meager gains of the Bush years. And crucially, while 2010 was a year of continued stagnation for the economy as a whole, the 1 percent began to show strong gains even when capital gains are excluded.

As you can imagine, this has increased the percentage of the economic pie that the top 1 percent takes home. As Saez notes, “excluding realized capital gains, the top decile share in 2010 is equal to 46.3 percent, higher than in 2007.”

There are two things worth mentioning. There’s an interesting debate within left-liberal circles about whether or not elite economic interests benefit from a weak recovery, benefit more from a strong recovery, are vaguely indifferent to the United States economy, are impotent during the recession, or are more interested in pursuing other agendas during the instability caused by mass unemployment. These numbers are certainly a point for the argument that the rich are doing just fine, and to whatever extent they’d be doing better with more robust growth and employment, it isn’t putting a damper on their earnings.

It’s also worth mentioning that, pre-recession, inequality hadn’t been that high since the Great Depression, and we are quickly returning to that state. It’s important to remember that a series of choices were made during the New Deal to react to runaway inequality, including changes to progressive taxation, financial regulation, monetary policy, labor unionization, and the provisioning of public goods and guaranteed social insurance. A battle will be fought over the next decade — it’s already been fought for the past three years — on all these fronts. The subsequent resolution will determine how broadly shared prosperity is going forward and whether our economy will continue to be as unstable as it has been.

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/05/welcome_to_the_1_percent_recovery/singleton/That elite sliver reaped 93 percent of the post-recession income gains. Is extreme... more

JRBarilla
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3 months ago
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Did the Stimulus Work?

"Anybody out there wondering why this video is not hitting the Air Waves???"... more

KB723
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3 months ago
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52 comments

Bailout and Stimulus – Fool me twice, Shame on me!

This article to be read in that certain disapproving tone of your favorite parent,... more

DMashak
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5 months ago
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'A Tale of Two Americas'

'In FDR’s First Hundred Days, politicians work day and night, shuffling... more

StewSteve
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5 months ago
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Today the CBO reported that the 2009 Stimulus added up to 3.3M jobs. Vindication for Obama or you not? | www.thepoliticus.com

Question of The Wekk. Please click and vote!

dcherry
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6 months ago
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Dear GOP: F#@K You! (VIDEO)

So, for all they've done to obstruct progress, science, free thought, economic... more

StewSteve
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7 months ago
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1 comment

Green Energy, Made in Maryland!

GM announced Wednesday it will begin producing electric motors for the all-electric... more

ParkyBill
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7 months ago
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Are We the Next Japan?

There's no shortage of debate as to whether the Obama administration and Congress... more

Swisher
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8 months ago
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6 comments

Obama was warned not to visit Solyndra

A Silicon Valley investor and senior administration officials warned the White House... more

JohnA
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8 months ago
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65 comments

Debunking 6 Big GOP Lies about the Economy (VIDEO)

Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme as Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry... more

StewSteve
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9 months ago
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Obama Jobs Bill Plan to Begin Taxing Health Insurance Stirs Opposition

President Barack Obama is asking lawmakers to tax the health-insurance benefits of top... more

JohnA
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9 months ago
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6 comments

Lawmakers probe how solar company got $528M loan

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans questioned Wednesday whether the White House... more

JohnA
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9 months ago
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18 comments

Obama's Big Speech Doesn't Matter

Obama's Big Speech Doesn't Matter It's what he does afterward that... more

wolfess
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9 months ago
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10 Questions That Will NOT Be Asked in Tonight's GOP Debate

It's FUN to pretend the media is NOT in bed with the Republican party and WOULD... more

ParkyBill
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9 months ago
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