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"America’s #economic performance has left other countries in the dust & even broken some of its own records. The #growth rate is high, the #unemployment rate is at historic lows, household #wealth is surging, & #wages are rising faster than costs, especially for the #workingclass.

There are many ways to define a good #economy. #America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.

The #American #public doesn’t feel that way"

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/us-economy-excellent/678630/

#Economics #USA #News #US

The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status

^{Rogé Karma (The Atlantic)}

#economy #News #USA #us #america #wealth #workingclass #economics #public #growth #american #unemployment #economic #wages

in reply to Zhi Zhu 🕸️

Zhi Zhu 🕸️

in reply to Zhi Zhu 🕸️ • 2 weeks ago • •

"But if, instead of asking how people feel about the #economy, we ask how it’s objectively performing, we get a very different answer.

Let’s start with economists’ favorite metric: growth...

Right now America’s economic-growth rate is the envy of the world. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, #US #GDP grew by 8.2%—nearly twice as fast as Canada’s, 3 times as fast as the European Union’s, & more than 8 times as fast as the United Kingdom’s."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/us-economy-excellent/678630/

#Economics #USA #News

Text:
The American public doesn’t feel that way—a dynamic that many people, including me, have recently tried to explain. But if, instead of asking how people feel about the economy, we ask how it’s objectively performing, we get a very different answer.

Let’s start with economists’ favorite metric: growth. When an economy is growing, more money is being spent. More stuff is being produced, more services are being performed, more businesses are being started, more workers are being hired—and, because of this abundance, living standards are probably rising. (On the flip side, during a recession—literally, when the economy shrinks—life gets materially worse.) Right now America’s economic-growth rate is the envy of the world. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, U.S. GDP grew by 8.2 percent—nearly twice as fast as Canada’s, three times as fast as the European Union’s, and more than eight times as fast as the United Kingdom’s.

“It’s hard to think of a time when the U.S. economy has diverged so fundamentally from its peers,” Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told me. Over the past year, some of the world’s biggest economies, including those of Japan and Germany, have fallen into recession, complete with mass layoffs and angry street protests. In the U.S., however, the post-pandemic recession never arrived. The economy just keeps growing.

The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status

No, really.

^{Rogé Karma (The Atlantic)}

#economy #News #USA #us #economics #gdp

in reply to Zhi Zhu 🕸️

Zhi Zhu 🕸️

in reply to Zhi Zhu 🕸️ • 2 weeks ago • •

"Are most #Americans better off financially than they were before the pandemic?

...If prices go up but people’s incomes go up faster, then the #CostOfLiving decreases. And that is exactly what has happened in the #US over the past five years.

...When #inflation was at its worst, in late 2021 & 2022, prices were rising too fast for workers’ pay to keep up. Over the course of 2023, however, the rate of inflation plummeted while #wages kept rising"

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/us-economy-excellent/678630/

#Economics #USA #News

Text:
Are most Americans better off financially than they were before the pandemic?

One school of thought maintains that the answer is no, because of the rising cost of living. Thanks to three years of higher-than-usual inflation, just about everything costs more than it did before the pandemic.

Price increases on their own, however, can’t tell us if the cost of living has gone up. What really matters is the relationship between how expensive things are and how much money people have to spend on them. As Vox’s Eric Levitz recently pointed out, prices have increased by 1,400 percent since 1947; that doesn’t mean Americans have less buying power today than at a time when a third of the country didn’t have running water and 40 percent lived in poverty. That’s largely because incomes have increased by 2,400 percent over the same stretch. If prices go up but people’s incomes go up faster, then the cost of living decreases. And that is exactly what has happened in the U.S. over the past five years.

It took some time. When inflation was at its worst, in late 2021 and 2022, prices were rising too fast for workers’ pay to keep up. Over the course of 2023, however, the rate of inflation plummeted while wages kept rising. According to calculations by the economist Arindrajit Dube, prices rose about 20 percent from the beginning of the pandemic to the end of 2023—but the median worker’s hourly wages had increased by more than 26 percent...

The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status

No, really.

^{Rogé Karma (The Atlantic)}

#News #USA #us #inflation #economics #americans #costofliving #wages

in reply to Zhi Zhu 🕸️

Zhi Zhu 🕸️

in reply to Zhi Zhu 🕸️ • 2 weeks ago • •

"From the beginning of the pandemic through the fall of 2023, the last period for which we have good comparative data, real #wages in both #Europe and #Japan fell. In #Germany, workers lost 7 percent of their purchasing power; in #Italy, 9 percent. By these metrics, the only workers in the entire developed world who are meaningfully better off than they were four years ago are #American ones."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/us-economy-excellent/678630/

#Economics #Economy #Biden #Bidenomics #US #USA #UnitedStates #News

Text and chart from article:

Text:
Other nations probably wish they had the luxury of debating such technicalities. From the beginning of the pandemic through the fall of 2023, the last period for which we have good comparative data, real wages in both Europe and Japan fell. In Germany, workers lost 7 percent of their purchasing power; in Italy, 9 percent. By these metrics, the only workers in the entire developed world who are meaningfully better off than they were four years ago are American ones.

Chart showing change percentage in Earnings 2019 Q3 to 2023 Q3.
US is up 2.8%
Canada is up 0.2%
France is down 0.5%
Japan is down 1.6%
UK is down 2.2%
Germany is down 7.2%
Italy is down 9.1%

Source: US Department of the Treasury

The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status

No, really.

^{Rogé Karma (The Atlantic)}

#economy #News #Germany #Europe #USA #us #japan #Biden #Italy #economics #UnitedStates #american #bidenomics #wages

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Zhi Zhu 🕸️ 2 weeks ago • •

Zhi Zhu 🕸️
2 weeks ago • •