[lbo-talk] Survey of Consumer Finances

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Unpack this, please. Over at The American Prospect Online
it's being suggested that it means that "the Bush economy is
curbing income inequality" [sic].  I don't believe it. --CGE] 

February 23, 2006
Survey Says Average U.S. Family Income Declines
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:57 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The average income of American families,
after adjusting for inflation, declined by 2.3 percent in 2004
compared to 2001 while their net worth rose but at a slower pace.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that the drop in
inflation-adjusted incomes left the average family income at
$70,700 in 2004. The median, or point where half the families
earned more and half less, did rise slightly in 2004 after
adjusting for inflation to $43,200, up 1.6 percent from the
2001 level.

The median, or midpoint for net worth rose by 1.5 percent to
$93,100 from 2001 to 2004. That growth was far below the 10.3
percent gain in median net worth from 1998 to 2001, a period
when the stock market reached record highs before starting to
decline in early 2000.

The Fed's results were published in the 2004 Survey of
Consumer Finances, a document which provides a comprehensive
view of how Americans are faring on such pocketbook issues as
incomes and net worth.