I couldn’t help but think of this Pew survey(.pdf) spotted at the Huffington Post this morning when listening to President Obama introduce his American Jobs Act before a joint session of Congress earlier this evening. The report concluded that about one quarter of children raised in middle-class families in the 1970s have fallen out of that group, presumably reversing a trend that had been in place for many decades. This chart was pretty interesting too:

A quick trip over to the BLS inflation calculator reveals that $32,900 in 1980 equaled about $78,000 in 2005 and $64,000 would be over $150,000 after adjusting for inflation, so, it appears that, even those who have managed to stay in the middle class are falling behind.

There’s a lot not to like about Texas Governor and GOP candidate Rick Perry, but, clearly, two of his redeeming qualities are his disdain for the Bernanke Fed and, based on the fact that his campaign team is, so far, devoid of economists, a seeming dislike for the entire dismal set. Prior to last night’s GOP debate, this story in Forbes discussed the latter.

The governor relies on the Lone Star State’s economic performance under his leadership over the last decade to make his case. But where is his economic plan for the nation? Or, at least, where is the economic team that will help him craft it?

So far, apparently, neither exists.
…
As he stands up his campaign, there is evidence Perry is reaching out to private-sector leaders for economic advice. He brought a handful of Washington hands who lead small business trade associations down to Austin last month for a lunch meeting that one participant described as a “pure policy session” on job growth.

And it may be that Perry would like to hold off on hiring economic eggheads for as long as he can. The governor has cultivated an anti-elitist image, distancing himself from his predecessor in the Texas governor’s mansion, George W. Bush, by noting the 43rd president went to Yale, while Perry was a Texas A&M man. On Fox News, he recently blasted Obama for surrounding himself with academics who claim prestigious degrees and no real-world experience. “They are intellectually very, very smart but he does not have wise men and women around him,” Perry said.

As for last night’s debate, according to this Housing Wire story, the nation’s chief economist – Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke – isn’t too popular with this crowd, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney saying they would not reappoint Bernanke to another term as the Fed chief if they were elected president, Gingrich saying he’d “fire him tomorrow”.

Based on Newt’s position in polls, Bernanke can rest easy until the end of his term.

Add this graphic from this NY Times article to the growing collection of charts portending doom for the U.S. economy (or at least another recession), this one based on the idea that job growth in the U.S. has slowed to a pace that, without exception over the last 50 years, has been associated with recessions (i.e., either heading into, in, or exiting a slowdown).

Of course, word earlier today that weekly jobless claims “unexpectedly” rose, up 2,000 to 414,000 for the week ended Sept. 3rd as employers stepped up their pace of firing, only adds to the negative feedback loop that the U.S. economy entered a few months ago.

The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy produced a net zero new jobs in August, a figure that was heavily influenced by striking Verizon employees who have since returned to work, however, there were substantial downward revisions to prior payrolls data, all of which indicates that the U.S. labor market remains quite troubled.

The jobless rate held steady at 9.1 percent and the official tally of unemployed workers was virtually unchanged at 14 million. The broad U6 measure of underemployment – including those who have given up looking for work and who are working part-time for economic reasons – rose from 16.1 percent to 16.2 percent.

(more…)

Gallup’s latest Job Creation Index shows where jobs have been created and destroyed in the U.S. this year and it should come as no surprise that the Midwest energy and agriculture boom along with the Washington money printing and borrowing boom have led to strong job growth in those regions. But, what’s driving the job gains in South Carolina and Georgia?

Other than categorizing them as “commodity states” and noting they rank 8th and 10th, respectively, there is no further discussion about job growth in the deep South, so, it will remain a mystery. I can’t think of anything other than tobacco, though I don’t claim to know much about the region. Anyone?