Chart ‘o the day: the lost decade

by digby

From the latest Federal Reserve triennial look at family income and wealth:

Via Kevin Drum, who also points this surprising piece of information:

Despite these setbacks, consumers have continued to spend surprising amounts of money in recent years, helping to keep the economy growing at a modest pace. The survey underscores where the money is coming from: Americans are saving less for future needs and making little progress in repaying debts.

….The report highlighted the fact that households had made limited progress in reducing the amount that they owed to lenders. The share of households reporting any debt declined by 2.1 percentage points over the last three years, but 74.9 percent of households still owe something and the median amount of the debt did not change.

I say that’s surprising because I honestly assumed that Americans were paying down their debt, which was contributing to the sluggish demand. Not true. Yikes.

(And you realize that the piece which says the poorest Americans gained a little bit in income in the past decade means that they need to be kicking in more in taxes, right? It’s only “fair”)

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