Wealth Today Lags Far Behind 2007
By official measurements, the Great Recession is behind us and the economy is slowly recovering. The adverse effects, on the other hand, are still strong. Nearly five years after the recession was declared ended, nearly half of the wealth Americans held prior to the financial crisis has not been recovered. MarketWatch reports, “Americans are still 40% poorer today than they were in 2007, the year before the global financial crisis. The net worth of American families – the difference between the values of their assets, including homes and investments, and liabilities – fell to $81,400 in 2013, down slightly from $82,300 in 2010, but a long way off the $135,700 in 2007, according to a new report released on Friday by the nonprofit think-tank Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C.” That doesn’t bode well for the long-term economic outlook. Sadly, the Left won’t consider this entirely bad news, as they blame America’s economic woes on “wealthy” capitalist benefactors. By their logic, they’ve “leveled the playing field.” Except they haven’t. In fact, Democrats, led by Barack Obama, have only themselves to blame for widening the income gap. More…