The quality of employment (e.g. job security, and the fear of job loss) is lower & probably the inflation that ordinary people encounter is at least subjectively higher. Cheaper electronics does not compensate for higher gas and food costs, which are purchased regularly).
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 05:07:28PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
> [In March 1981, when this series began, the unemployment rate was 7.4% and
> consumer inflation was 10.5%. Unemployment is now 5.5% and inflation is
> 4.1%.]
>
> ABC NEWS CONSUMER INDEX ? 7/13/08
> EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AFTER 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, 2008
>
> Economic Expectations Now
> Their Lowest in 27 Years
>
> The day George W. Bush called a news conference intended to shore up
> economic
> confidence, a new ABC News survey finds pessimism about the economy?s
> direction its
> highest in 27 years of polls.
>
> Seventy-eight percent of Americans now say the economy?s getting worse, the
> most in
> polls that first asked the question in March 1981. It was 77 percent in
> May, tying a record
> that had stood since fall 1990, in the midst of the 1990-91 recession.
>
>
>
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com