No Housing Bubble in Detroit

This chart shows that the housing bubble is certainly bad nationally, but it never even existed in Detroit. Oy.

Income Inequality

A primary driver of the economic situation today in the US is increasing income inequality. See this:

United_States_Income_Distribution_1967-2003.svg‎ (SVG file, nominally 1,000 × 400 pixels, file size: 14 KB)

Another way of looking at it is from Krugman:

This is for households so a significant making feature is the increasing numer of women in the work force over the same period. Another way of looking at the data, adding the top 1% group:

Even the Wall Street Journal acknowledges the facts, including this chart:

During this same period, it is hard to argue that the increasing inequality has fueled an overall higher GNP growth rate:

Restarting

I have taken a hiatus from blogging since the election. Also, some personal issues have absorbed my time recently. However, I am restarting this blog with a new emphasis: posting data and charts that clearly explain and analyze the greater economic, social, and political issues we all face. Too often the issues, analyses, and prescriptions put forward by our political leaders and, even more discouragingly, by our "independent" national press, are incorrect, misleading, or diversionary. When I see a chart or data-based analysis that clarifies or illuminates a supposedly debatable point, I will post it so that over time, this blog will become a repository of solid data to counter much of the pervasive blather and bullshit. By using the Labels feature, it will be easy to collect the key data by subject, such as Health Care.

Let's see how this goes over time. There will be some backing and filling for a while as I reconnect with information I have noted over recent months.