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Originally Posted by Malk-a-mite
Dow by itself means nothing in the econ world.
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doesn't mean that much in the real world either.
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Originally Posted by Mazer
Do you remember the recession that began in 1999? It ended in 2001 and the economy has progressed strongly since then. The Dow is now at its all-time high, above 12,100 points; four years ago it was in the 8,000 range. That's a 4-year, 50% increase for that part of the economy (hint: that's frickin huge). During the same period unemployment rates have stayed below 6%, now at 4.4%. Gas prices have been high, but at the moment they're lower than they have been in more than two years, and crude has dropped to about $60 a barrel. Are you skeptical of the data, Malk, or are your standards just too high?
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it's not that the economy is all that bad - it's just the benficiaries of economic improvements have been primarily upper income people and large coporations.
case in point - me: i have a mid-range five-figure income, i've worked for a Fortune 500 company for a long time, i have two kids, a mortgage, a 401 K etc etc. in short, economically speaking, i'm pretty typical middle class. this is my experience:
on the plus side, i have recently seen the value of my stock portfolio increase (after a long slide). this is nice, but since my stocks are in a 401K, this rise is a blip in the big picture that will not benefit me for many years. i have also seen the value of my home rise dramatically in the last couple of years. this is also nice, but also does nothing for me for the foreseeable future - if i sell my house, any gains will be wiped out by the house i buy elsewhere.
on the negative side, my company has struggled, as have most over the last few years and we do more with less. i get annual salary increases, but my economic gains severely impacted by increases in health care costs. last year, it cost me about $4000 to insure me and my kids - this year, it has increased to $5400 (plus higher deductibles and copays). add it up and that will be a couple of thousand dollars that i could have spent elsewhere. oh, and gas is already on it's way back up (i paid $2.05 over the weekend - i paid $2.17 today).
so i'm holding my own, but i don't see a great economy. my situation is typical - my coworkers, customers, and most of the people i run into every day could tell pretty much the same story and i think the election results reflected that to some extent. at the end of the day, waving unemployment numbers and dow jones industrial averages just doesn't mean much in real terms.