Feeble Growth, Exhausted Consumers, & Shrinking Paychecks: The AP’s Brutally Honest Report on the State of the Economy

Dorothea Lange's Florence Owens Thompson,
 a mother of seven in Nipomo, CA, March 1936.

From The Blaze - The Associated Press on Wednesday published a report on the state of the U.S. economy that is, as surprising as it may be to some, both honest and scathing. “The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression,” the report begins. “Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a recovery that lasted at least three years. An Associated Press analysis shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is the weakest,” the report adds. But that’s not all. The report continues: The ugliness goes well beyond unemployment, which at 8.3 percent is the highest this long after a recession ended. Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack. Only once has job growth been slower. More than in any other post-World War II recovery, people who have jobs are hurting: Their paychecks have fallen behind inflation. The AP goes on to argue that a good deal of the U.S.’ current economic problems can be traced directly to the burst of the housing bubble and the 2008 financial crisis. Read more

Feeble Growth, Exhausted Consumers, & Shrinking Paychecks: The AP’s Brutally Honest Report on the State of the Economy