Every month the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases data on Americans’ incomes and spending – numbers which as you might imagine are pretty important in assessing the health of the nation’s economy.
Last month, incomes were supposed to climb by 0.2 percent – while spending was supposed to rise by 0.3 percent. Unfortunately, both ticked by just 0.1 percent according to BEA data released this week.
That’s disappointing, but our friends over at the website Zero Hedge once again dig beneath the headlines to uncover the uglier numbers that don’t get reported by the mainstream press.
“After holding relatively firm for the past five months … compensation of employees – the core component of personal income – tumbled by $21.9 billion (in July),” the website notes, adding that this was “the biggest monthly slide since May 2012.”
Ouch …
State-by-state income levels will be released next month, at which point we’ll get a better sense of where South Carolinians stand compared to their national peers. Last year it obviously wasn’t pretty …
2 comments
Keep moving along folks, nothing to see here.
That is nothing when you consider Obama ran through the entire debt ceiling hike only 7 months into this fiscal year.