ECONOMY/MIDDLE CLASS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The income of the median American household has finally rebounded from the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis, a significant milestone in the nation’s painfully slow economic recovery. Median household income reached $61,372 in 2017, the Census Bureau reported on Wednesday [9-12-18], a number that it said was statistically indistinguishable from the median on the cusp of the crisis, in 2007. The Trump administration, in a statement released by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, hailed the report as an indication of a strengthening American economy. ‘The effects of the strong economy are reaching Americans throughout the United States,’ the statement said, adding, ‘The news is actually better than these numbers suggest.’ But the details of the report raised questions about whether middle-class households — which have experienced an economic ‘lost decade’ — are now likely to see actual income gains or if they will simply tread water. One reason for concern is that income growth slowed in 2017, to 1.8 percent. Median income had grown more rapidly in previous years, by 5.2 percent in 2015 and 3.2 percent in 2016.”
–Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Pear, “U.S. Household Income Rises to Pre-Recession Levels, Prompting Cheers and Questions,” The New York Times online, September 12, 2018