A tale of two countries

Today's NY Times has two articles on opposite sides of its front page, one in the lower left and one in the lower right. The first, though headlined with "Census Shows A Modest Gain in U.S. Income" actually tells a tale of falling wages offset to some degree by longer working hours. The headline on the opposite side of the page is "Wares are on the Rise in China as Young Workers Grow Scarce." I doubt the two trends are merely a coincidence.

The situation in the US is really pretty bleak. As the Times reports, median household income in the U.S. is still about $1,000 less than it was in 2000, despite the slight gain in the past year. And, that is true even though more household family members are working, and they are working longer hours at lower wages than they were in 2000. The only good news there is the fact that there are enough jobs around to accommodate this, and that's only because we are at the end of an economic expansion. Just wait for the recession to destroy those jobs.

Meanwhile, the Times also tells us that the number of uninsured soared by 2.2 million last year, from 44.8 to 47.0 million.

Of course, China is not to blame for our problems here. They are the direct consequence of Bushonomics.