Yeah, yeah, I know we're all a bunch of whiners. Here's a few snips for you.
(snip)
"The government delivered a triple dose of bad news for consumers Thursday that roughly added up to this: If your wallet seems thinner than it used to be, it's not your imagination."
(snip)
"Consider the numbers the government released Thursday. Consumer prices surged 0.8% in July from the month before and chalked up a 12-month inflation rate of 5.6%, the Labor Department said Thursday.
That's the highest rate of annual inflation since 1991. At the same time, workers' earnings are shrinking.
The department said workers' average earnings, adjusted for inflation, fell 3.1% in July from a year earlier.
Real earnings have declined for 10 straight months, government data show.
"
The last time we saw a decline like this was in the recession of 1991," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm in Lexington, Mass. "
***Wasn't that right after the Reagan tax cuts BTW???***
(snip)
"Meanwhile, the job outlook is cloudy. Unemployment hit a four-year high of 5.7% in July and signs are accumulating that August may be worse.
New claims for unemployment insurance are on the rise, reaching 460,000 last week and 450,000 this week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Both were well above recent averages.
Continuing unemployment claims have hit 3.4 million -- the highest level since late 2003, said Gary Bigg, an economist with Bank of America in New York. That "indicates that jobs remain hard to find and that labor demand is soft," Bigg said. "
Here's the full
story if you're interested.
So when does the trickling start?
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