Our Recovered Economy

Without labor, there is no capitalist profit. And the labor participation rate [in the US] is at an all time low.

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Imperialism's response has been simple but ineffective. Its rulers have sought to whitewash every manifestation of crisis and paint a rosy reality for the masses.

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A new census report released just prior to the bombing indicated that median income rose by 5.2 percent in the year of 2014-2015, although few people in the US could endorse the gains.

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The claim that the capitalist crisis is on the mend is a complete farce. Not only have census questions on income been altered beginning in 2013 to broaden the assets counted, but also the fall in gas prices from 2014-2015 explain much of the cited gains. There has been little mention of how [real] income has once again dipped for the vast majority of workers in 2016 or that earnings for workers are still below 1999 numbers.

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Corporations have become heavily indebted to finance capital in the process. But finance capital takes everything while producing nothing and this has only exacerbated the impact of capitalism's periodic cycles of overproduction.

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The majority of people in the US cannot afford a 500 dollar emergency. Job creation has been relatively stagnant and any new infusion of jobs into the capitalist economy has come from the low-wage sector.

  Black Agenda Report

When I learned yesterday, 55 days before the 2016 election, that the Census Bureau and the White House had announced an historic leap in real (inflation-adjusted) median household income, my bullshit detector went into the red, went right off the scale and then ceased functioning.

  Zero Hedge

Look at that jump! The biggest since 1967 when record keeping began. How fucking likely is that?

My first clue appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

Our study of the Census Bureau's historical data shows a 651% growth in median household incomes from 1967 through 2014. Sounds impressive, but if you adjust for inflation using the Census Bureau's method, that nominal 651% total growth shrinks to about 21%.

  Sentier Research