Thursday, December 8, 2016

Gallup: The economy hasn't grown and is "running on empty"

The economy hasn't grown since 2007.  Such news will come as a surprise to more than a few people but a Gallup Report says that is exactly what has happened - or rather, hasn't happened. Gallup said the economy is "dangerously running on empty."   Gallup prepared the report for the U.S. Council on Competitiveness.   The report stated:

Conventional wisdom — as reported in many major newspapers and media — tells us the U.S. economy is “recovering.” Well-meaning economists,academics and government officials use the term “recovery” when discussing the economy, implying that growth is getting stronger.

The study finds there is no recovery. Since 2007, U.S. GDP per capita growth has been 1%.

The Great Recession may be over, but America is dangerously running on empty.

Think of our country as a company, America Inc., which has more than 100 million full-time employees, with about $18 trillion in sales and $20 trillion of debt. The most serious problem facing it is no growth. In addition, America Inc. has three soaring expenses threatening to bankrupt the company and its shareholder-citizens: healthcare, housing and education.

As this report notes, in 1980, these three sectors accounted for 25% of total national spending — today, they account for more than 36%. They also account for most of the total measured inflation over this period. And without inflation in these sectors, real annual productivity — defined as GDP per capita growth — would have been an estimated 3.9% instead of 1.7%. .... (p.2)

 THE UNITED STATES HAS NOW had seven years to recover from the worst of the Great Recession. During that time, job growth has been steady, if unspectacular, and the unemployment rate has fallen from 10% to just under 5%, where it stands as of this writing. Stock prices, meanwhile, continue to reach and surpass new highs. Leading politicians and commentators reassure the public that everything is getting better.

And yet, there is a pervasive sense that the economy is not working, as documented in Gallup survey data and many anecdotal media accounts.

The people are right. The economy is not working well. But the problems did not start with the Great Recession. For decades, the nation’s income, measured as GDP, has barely grown overall; on a per capita basis, median household income peaked in 1999; the subjective general health status of Americans has declined, even adjusting for the aging population; disability rates are higher; learning has stagnated; fewer new businesses are being launched; more workers are involuntarily stuck in part-time jobs or out of the labor force entirely; and the income ranks of grown children are no less tied to the income ranks of their parents.... (p.9)

If 1% growth continued for the next 35 years, per capita GDP would increase from $56,000 in 2015 to just $79,000 in 2050. With 1.7% growth, GDP per capita goes up to $101,000 by 2050, and with 2.4% growth it enlarges to $129,000.... (p.10)

The U.S. devotes far more resources to healthcare than any other country and yet achieves worse outcomes than most developed countries, consistent with the notion that U.S. healthcare is especially inefficient and ineffective. (p.11)

The U.S. education system has failed to instill any measurable gains in the cognitive performance of children and young adults for decades, as U.S. students and adults struggle with poor rates of literacy and numeracy despite high spending growth.... (p.12)

Indeed, global GDP is also slumping, and this isn’t only a recent development. Since 2007, global GDP per capita has expanded just 0.3% per year. That is far below the annual average from 1980 to 2015 of 1.4% growth, and very far below the annual average from 1960 to 1980 of 4.0% per capita
growth. As bad as it is in the United States, other high-income countries are doing considerably worse. The European Union and Japan have actually seen a decline in GDP per capita since 2007... (p.22)

(However) Exports as a share of GDP increased from 11.5% in 2007 to 12.6% in 2015, even as global GDP growth fell. (p.23)....
The rest of the nugget-filled report is posted below.












32 comments:

Anonymous said...

This should not come as a surprise. For this country to grow the leaders will have to run it like a business. It has been a long time since we have had leaders who have any experience in business. They cannot do something they have no idea how to do.
If we plan on this country continuing in the future we will have to have less people riding in the wagon and more pulling it. Getting those who have been riding, even dragging their feet, is not going to be easy.

This Cannot Be.. said...

But the Democrats have talked so much shit.

Interesting that this did not come out prior to the election.

Anonymous said...

But, but, but to hear Obama tell it, the economy is doing GREAT. After he personally rescued us from the worst recession in the history of mankind.

Burke said...

Over all, we need less federal government and its endlessly multiplying regulations, but dialing back regulations should be undertaken rationally. The notion of "starving the beast" is as stupid as it sounds. Certainly we would be insane to cut taxes when we are so far underwater with the national debt.

I'm a free trade person, but the free market has failed regarding healthcare. It's time to go to single payer. Will Gallup step up and say that in its subsequent reports? The Republicans will be broadcasting their plan for replacing the ACA, but I am certain that it will be just as unwieldy and wasteful.

As for education, I am all for abolishing the Department of Education and terminating every college and university education department in our fair land, other than at community colleges. Let's encourage each state to cut administrative postions by at least half, and pay teachers more. Let there be easy licensing and no unions. Yes, I'm out for blood.

Peace and love otherwise.

Anonymous said...

1:10 PM

Info has been available, the electorate expects to be spoon fed. That is not a party alliance issue, Dems or Repubs. We are all too damn lazy, set in our own small minded opinions, to research the issues ourselves, me included, at times, to make educated decisions.

It isn't exclusive to the Democrats to have "talked so much s$!t (sic)".

Anonymous said...

This is a SURPRISE? Precisely what everyone with money (or a brain) KNEW would happen, DID happen. People have adjusted to the new America. But it's not the old America. Eight years of Bush, followed by eight years of Bush-in-another-color, and the nation has been sliding - predictably - downhill.

It's not just a matter of deliberate sabotage, by governments hostile to the populace. It's also a matter of demographic replacement. Replacing descendants of Founding Stock, with people who descend from those who've created the Third World, is slowly eroding productivity - and, more importantly, erasing the POSSIBILITY of a rebound.

Anonymous said...

America/U.S. is too far in the trenches of globalism & neoliberalism for paleoconservatism (Trump) to fix. 8 yrs, if given that, won't fix what's been done over a far longer time span.

Anonymous said...


I know that my sales in 2007 were $42.5 million and in 2016 my sales are less than $4.3 million and in 2015 they were less than half a million dollars. WOW---I have spent all of my savings keeping my firm open---I don't know if it was worth it---I'm 74.

THANK YOU PRESIDENT BUSH & OBOMA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Now where is Donna to tell you all how WOEFULLY uneducated you all are and it's LIBERALLY apparent that under Obama we have added a gazillion jobs! (Half of that gazillion is working two jobs now, we are such an industrious country! That's how we know Affirmative Action is working you misogynistic fools) Obama has also cut the deblecit in half! You racist peasants don't know what you're talking about. You only want to orally and alphabetically defecate on Obama's legacy of love and feels for all minority Syrians who pledge support for ISIL. How dare you question what CNN,CBS, MSNBC, BLM and the Chinese government and the sacred institution of my opinion (which is fact) tells you! You are all bigoted, xenophobic, racist oligarchs who will never understand what it's like to be over-educated and live in a white neighborhood in a predominantly black municipality. You'll never be able to comprehend how rampant socialism has HELPED our poc community become extremely successful! You're all too busy reading fake news! Remove yourself from the dark lower orifice of Thad Cochran and realize what he did a long time ago - when we run out of money we can just keep printing more!

Anonymous said...

3:23 you should have walked away a long time ago, for most people I talk to in the wholesale business sales are up, but margins are down. We have to sell more year in and year out to make the same pay.

Anonymous said...

Not at all a fan of our incoming president, but I hope he turns this trend around, and I'll gladly give him credit if he does.

Anonymous said...

Amen 5:07 to bad the forces are bigger them him, the US did better than the rest of the world the last 20 years. The age of robots, and cheap labor will continue to effect us just like every body else. The key is to invest in education. You need more than your hands and a strong back to make a living.

Anonymous said...

All Obama is saying is that it's better that it was in 2008, and by any measure that ain't no lie.

Anonymous said...

GOP now runs the Government for the next four years. Just make it great like the great I am has stated. Definitely no excuses now.

Anonymous said...

Wow Kingfish didn't censor 5:37, wait til the dogs see that post.

Anonymous said...

The report basically says there was been no real growth in decades and things peaked in 1999. People respond by blaming Obama and democrats. One would assume the readers of this blog are educated and intelligent. If educated individuals read this report and walk away blaming Obama and democrats, that says one thing....education in this country is a failure and the intelligent are not that smart. No wonder our economy is stalled....it's because our thinking has.

Anonymous said...

Take it from a mortgage banker, refinance now, next year this time you will think it's the Eighties. Some of you remember I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

All Obama is saying is that it's better that it was in 2008, and by any measure that ain't no lie.

Well, actually, no, you and the Kenyan are incorrect ... again.

Anonymous said...

Thank God that Priebus is in charge rather than the nuts that got him elected.

Anonymous said...

How so 7:40, do you have facts or do you have blind loyalty to the Republican point of view?

Anonymous said...

One thing is for sure. We have too many people.
Not enough jobs? Machines taking over the jobs of people? Global warming? You name the problem. It all comes down to just too many people. There isn't a demand for them anymore.
The answer is simple. No child should be born without a special license.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comment from mortgage banker

Refinance now.

He didn't say "buy" now.

When interest rates hit 10% your $500000 house will appraise for $350000....maybe.

Hunker down girls. Hope you are in the debt you like.....gonna be yours for a while.

Anonymous said...

What I don't understand is why do we need Carson and Haley we have some good people who could do them jobs

Anonymous said...

Who are the racist jackasses on here who insist on calling Obama "the Kenyan?" He is a Harvard law grad who, if you have ever bothered listening to him...but of course you haven't you racist idiot. Go fuck
Yourself.

Anonymous said...

"I am all for abolishing the Department of Education and terminating every college and university education department in our fair land."

I don't guess I've ever heard of a college or university education department. What is one and can you cite an example?

Anonymous said...

What's racist about referring to a Kenyan as a Kenyan. Would the objector rather he be called a Kenyan-American?

Anonymous said...

Obama's failed presidency has nothing to do with his mixed race and everything to do with his rank incompetence.

Anonymous said...

Racism runs rampant as usual among the trolls here. Folks, a Democrat left office in 2001 when we were running a surplus. A Republican threw away the surplus, blew up the Mideast (with consequences that will keep rolling in for generations), and led the country into the Great Recession. And a Democrat has to clean up the mess. Oops, the Democrat is only half white. Not enough to be granted credibility by the 90% white Republicans. You don't have to live in Mississippi to see that there's going to be a problem. And now we have The Demagogue. Forgive me for not being optimistic.

Anonymous said...

11:18, anyone who thinks the U.S. had a surplus in 2001 either cannot read, cannot count, and does not know how to research.
One question needs to be answered. If the U.S. was running a surplus in 2001 then why did we still have to borrow money? I haven't ever heard a democrat explain that.

Anonymous said...

1:42, you know well what I was referring to--we were not going deeper in debt.

Anonymous said...

2:27, no I do not know what you were referring to and neither do you. You are repeating something you heard and want to believe even though it isn't true. We did go deeper in debt in 2001. You don't have to believe me, just look it up. We continued to borrow money every year. We continued to borrow because there was not a surplus. We didn't even break even. When people talk about having a surplus it is a sure indication they do not know what they are talking about.

Anonymous said...

"Who are the racist jackasses on here who insist on calling Obama "the Kenyan?" He is a Harvard law grad who, if you have ever bothered listening to him...but of course you haven't you racist idiot. Go fuck
Yourself."

December 8, 2016 at 11:16 PM

"That CREATURE", as I refer to the thing, is nothing but a confused, narcissistic byproduct of a mistake made by its mother. It smokes, and was a druggie in high school. It was incompetent at HARVARD, and, thankfully, has been incompetent at its assigned task (dismantling the nation). It's definitely not an American, or a Christian - obvious facts to which millions of people have alluded, over the past eight years.



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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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