Current mood:	Oil-Shocked
Current music:	Kool n' the Gang

Disco Stu... Feels Right At Home
Allll right, my friends. With the general condition of things in this country (As Chappelle would say: "Republicans are Fvckin' Up!"), I thought we all might enjoy a bit of happiness. And what, in this nation of ours, makes people as happy as Nostalgia?

SO - I proudly present to you...

I LOVE THE 70'S - ECONOMIC ANALYSIS EDITION

For those of you who missed out on the 24-hour party that was the 1970's economy, I bid you shed no tear! Stagflation, the life of that party, is back!

BEHOLD!

Stagnating economy, StagFlation like we had in the 70's, observable now in the following ways:

Median houshold income has stayed even (about 44k/yr) since 2001, as CPI (consumer price index) has increased.

Poverty rate, as a side-effect, is now up 3 or 4 points to 12.1%. Which means, folks, that more than 1 in 10 people in this country are under the GOVERNMENT's definition of poor, which is a LOT lower than a respectable "living wage," especially in a lot of housing-bubbled markets.

Job growth has been well below where it would need to be to replace jobs lost at the beginning of the recession, and more importantly, the TYPES of jobs are vastly different. Middle-management, customer service, and manufacturing jobs are being replaced, mostly, by minimum-wage unskilled jobs, or by high-tech which can only absorb so much of the available labor pool. This results in a high rate of UNDERemployment, which is partly responsible for a trend of decreasing salaries for new college graduates.

Also, the unemployment rate doesn't take into account the number of people who have been laid off and have temporarily given up on looking for work, which would bump the unemployment rate up another 1 or 2 percent (big numbers, actually).

Let's not forget the combination of rising interest rates (because Greenspan the Shill is totally past-due for being put out to pasture), and this new oil shock, which was the only piece missing from a repeat of the 70's.

Bush is term-limited in '08, but we can still put Ford or Carter back in, and start wearing bell-bottoms, chest hair and gold medallions. I'm going to go listen to the BeeGee's.

Stayin' Alive,
-Evan