[lbo-talk] comparing cycles

[Doug Henwood]

With the income & poverty nums for 2006 out yesterday, I thought I'd  
compare cycles. Here's what happened to the poverty rate and real  
median household incomes 5 years after a recession.

                    change in

          -------------------------------

          poverty rate      median income
1982-87      -1.6              +9.6%
1991-96      -0.5              +4.4
2001-06      +0.6              +0.2

Poverty rate went from a fairly sharp decline in the 1980s to a  
*rise* in the 2000s, and median income went from a strong rise to  
basically unch (as they say on Wall Street). This really is the most  
class-skewed expansion since at least the 1920s.

Doug