"The typical household has regained less than half [the wealth lost in the recession]," according to a new analysis by the St. Louis Fed. "That's far below the estimate in a Federal Reserve report in March that calculated that Americans as a whole had regained 91 percent of their losses." Uhhh... yeah.
I mean I understand there's a margin of error in these things and all, but going from "the average American household has regained 91% of its wealth" to "the average American household has regained less than half of its wealth" is a margin of error approaching 100%, for a report that was just issued two months ago, by the same agency. Let's all try a little harder.
But just to make sure everyone is all on the same page now, Americans are only halfway recovered from the recession. And furthermore, "The very families most exposed to the economic fallout of a deep recession—fallout that came in the form of job loss or reduced income—possessed the weakest and riskiest balance sheets."
Anyhow, this new report is surely correct, because it's way more depressing than the last one.
[St. Louis Fed/ AP. Photo: Wayne Wilkinson/ Flickr]