Over the last three years, households with incomes of $75,000 and up have experienced a dreary, often harsh employment landscape. In more than one-quarter of these households, someone has lost a job.
Throughout the recession and the slow, meek recovery that has followed, there has been much discussion about a “new normal.” After the financial collapse, there was a widespread shift among consumers, a tendency to scale back on unnecessary expenses—as some observers put it, to replace the mindless accumulation of the past with more “mindful spending.” [...]
In an excerpt from his new book The Price of Civilization, liberal economist Jeffery Sachs argues that without a robust middle class and even more government spending, the U.S. will remain stagnant for years.
We’re in a new age of financial volatility that could last years, and it seems that nobody has the answers to get us out.
There’s near unanimity among Americans that the economy’s in bad shape—and relatively few have confidence that things will get better anytime soon.
