income

Our discretionary income has dropped by 13%, according to one analysis.

A century ago, Americans spent nearly half of their income on food. Today, that figure is closer to one-tenth. Bryan Walsh at Vox talks about how we got here.

Over the last several decades, labor’s share of overall income has been declining. That could have consequences for consumer spending going forward.

Wealthy people have been driving an increasing share of consumer spending over the last year. That’s largely because asset values have been increasing, encouraging wealthy people to keep spending money.

New data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows as prices go up, people are continuing to spend more money than they earn and are also saving less.

The Treasury Department released a preliminary list of jobs eligible for President Donald Trump’s $25,000 “no tax on tips” deduction, and it had a few jobs that you might not expect.

The pessimism varies inversely with income, with the biggest earners feeling the least gloomy.

Consumers have been saying how fed up they are with inflation. But they keep on buying stuff, says Stephen Brown at Capital Economics. 

Common economic measurements, like GDP growth, tell us how fast the economic pie is growing. But they don’t tell us how the pie is getting distributed.

From 2019 to 2022, total U.S. household wealth grew 25%., but there’s lots of evidence that Americans are disenchanted with this economy.