CNN (January 3)
“Evidence is mounting that the US-China trade war is dealing a blow to the American stock market. Stocks plunged on Thursday after Apple (AAPL) blamed a big sales miss on slowing growth in China and rising trade tensions. China’s massive manufacturing sector… has tumbled into contraction. And trade trouble helped fuel the biggest one-month decline in US factory activity since the Great Recession.”
Tags: Apple, China, Contraction, Decline, Evidence, Great Recession, Growth, Manufacturing, Plunged, Stock market, Tensions, Trade war, U.S.
Newsweek (September 4)
“September 15 will mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and near meltdown of Wall Street, followed by the Great Recession.” With household debt at “an all-time high of $13.2 trillion,” we’re now close to a repeat. The direct cause will be income imbalance, not a banking crisis. “The U.S. economy crashes when it becomes too top heavy because the economy depends on consumer spending to keep it going…. For a time, the middle class and poor can keep the economy going nonetheless by borrowing. But, as in 1929 and 2008, debt bubbles eventually burst. We’re getting dangerously close.”
Tags: Anniversary, Banking, Collapse, Consumer spending, Crisis, Great Recession, Household debt, Income imbalance, Lehman Brothers, Meltdown, Top heavy, U.S., Wall Street
Time (September 13)
“The median household income for a family in America surged last year, the first time since before the Great Recession when there was a year-over-year increase in earnings. Median household income in the United States was $56,516 in 2015, an increase of 5.2% in inflation-adjusted dollars from the 2014 median of $53,718.”
Tags: Earnings, Family, Great Recession, Household income, Surge, U.S.
The Economist (November 14)
The Great Recession has morphed into the never ending crisis. Over the past decade, we’ve seen fallout from the U.S. housing crisis, the Euro crisis brought on by Greece, and now “a third instalment in the chronicles of debt is now unfolding. This time the setting is emerging markets. Investors have already dumped assets in the developing world, but the full agony of the slowdown still lies ahead.”
Tags: Assets, Crisis, Debt, Emerging markets, Euro crisis, Great Recession, Greece, Housing crisis, Investors, Never ending, Slowdown, U.S.
New York Times (February 2)
“Modest growth has never been enough to overcome the damage of the Great Recession and, from there, to reach new levels in terms of output, employment and wages.” Unfortunately, the U.S. is still stuck with modest growth. “For all the talk about accelerating growth, the economy grew last year at a rate of 2.4 percent, basically in line with growth over the past several years.”
Tags: Economy, Employment, Great Recession, Growth, Output, U.S., Wages
New York Times (January 12)
“Hands down, 2014 was the best year for the labor market since the Great Recession hit in late 2007.” Nevertheless, the “recent progress does not so much point a way forward as highlight weaknesses that need to be corrected and risks that need to be avoided in order not to backslide.” Job growth has yet to catch up with population growth, and continues to be concentrated in the lowest paying areas.
Tags: 2014, Backslide, Great Recession, Job growth, Labor market, Pay, Population, U.S.
Washington Post (December 12, 2013)
Manufacturing has bounced back in the U.S. since the Great Recession, rising each year since 2010. “Profits are soaring — in 2012, after-tax profits of manufacturing firms hit a record high of $290 billion. Share values have soared with them. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Industrials Index has risen 59 percent more than the overall 500-stock index since 2009.”
Tags: Great Recession, Industrials, Manufacturing, Profits, S&P 500, Share values, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 11)
Five years ago Lehman Brothers fell, setting off the Great Recession. Since the financial crisis, there has been no genuine attempt to remake the financial system and “far from being tamed, the financial beast has gotten its mojo back—and is winning. The people have forgotten—and are losing.”
Los Angeles Times (May 9)
“Perhaps the only silver lining to the Great Recession is that it triggered a new focus on manufacturing in the United States. After 25 years of being sold a shiny vision of a service-dominated post-industrial economy, the U.S. is rediscovering how important it is to actually make things in order to spur innovation, raise wages, drive exports and lower the trade deficit.”
Tags: Exports, Great Recession, Innovation, Manufacturing, U.S., Wages
New York Times (January 18)
“The number of Americans living in poverty rose by 1.7 million to nearly 47.5 million” or nearly 16% of the population during 2008. Regrettable, this was nonetheless expected given the extent of the Great Recession. Surprisingly, the poverty level remained stable during 2009, despite mounting job losses. This shows the Government’s stimulus and safety net measures made a difference. The New York Times urges Congress not to slash essential spending, “reducing federal help now will almost ensure more poverty later.”
Tags: Congress, Great Recession, Poverty, U.S.
