Income growth has been dismal this century
Yesterday Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin touted growth as the backbone of the administrations plan to cut taxes. He's talking about GDP, which has been the focus on generations of politicians.
Despite the crisis and overall malaise in the economy, they have made progress. Since 2000, the US economy has growth to $18.8 trillion from $10.0 trillion -- an 88% increase.
All that growth hasn't made a difference to median American. Sentier tracks the indicator that's probably the number that matters most to the vast majority of Americans -- income.
According to them, real median household income is $58,673. That's slightly lower than $58,748 when the index began in January 2000.
The index has climbed 10.3% since the low in August 2011 but it's flat over the past year.
In nominal terms, income has increased 40% since 2000, but all of that has been eaten away by inflation.
