Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Krugman sulla situazione economica USA

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/opinion/26krugman.html?ex=1282708800&en=e3
2c25148c7c3bed&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Summer of Our Discontent
By PAUL KRUGMAN
For the last few months there has been a running debate about the U.S.
economy, more or less like this:
American families: "We're not doing very well."
Washington officials: "You're wrong - you're doing great. Here, look
at these statistics!"
The administration and some political commentators seem genuinely
puzzled by polls showing that Americans are unhappy about the economy.
After all, they point out, numbers like the growth rate of G.D.P. look
pretty good.
So why aren't people cheering?
Some blame the negative halo effect of the Iraq debacle.
Others complain that the news media aren't properly reporting good
economic news.
But when your numbers tell you that people should be feeling good, but
they aren't, that means you're looking at the wrong numbers.
American families don't care about G.D.P.
They care about whether jobs are available, how much those jobs pay
and how that pay compares with the cost of living.
And recent G.D.P. growth has failed to produce exceptional gains in
employment, while wages for most workers haven't kept up with
inflation.
About employment: it's true that the economy finally started adding
jobs two years ago.
But although many people say "four million jobs in the last two years"
reverently, as if it were an amazing achievement, it's actually a rise
of about 3 percent, not much faster than the growth of the working-age
population over the same period.
And recent job growth would have been considered subpar in the past:
employment grew more slowly during the best two years of the Bush
administration than in any two years during the Clinton
administration.
It's also true that the unemployment rate looks fairly low by
historical standards.
But other measures of the job situation, like the average of weekly
hours worked (which remains low), and the average duration of
unemployment (which remains high), suggest that the demand for labor
is still weak compared with the supply.
Employers certainly aren't having trouble finding workers.
When Wal-Mart announced that it was hiring at a new store in Northern
California, where the unemployment rate is close to the national
average, about 11,000 people showed up to apply for 400 jobs.
Because employers don't have to raise wages to get workers, wages are
lagging behind the cost of living.
According to Labor Department statistics, the purchasing power of an
average nonsupervisory worker's wage has fallen about 1.5 percent
since the summer of 2003.
And this may understate the pressure on many families: the cost of
living has risen sharply for those whose work or family situation
requires buying a lot of gasoline.
Some commentators dismiss concerns about gasoline prices, because
those prices are still below previous peaks when you adjust for
inflation.
But that misses the point:
Americans bought cars and made decisions about where to live when gas
was $1.50 or less per gallon, and now suddenly find themselves paying
$2.60 or more.
That's a rude shock, which I estimate raises the typical family's
expenses by more than $900 a year.
You may ask where economic growth is going, if it isn't showing up in
wages.
That's easy to answer:
it's going to corporate profits, to rising health care costs and to a
surge in the salaries and other compensation of executives.
(Forbes reports that the combined compensation of the chief executives
of America's 500 largest companies rose 54 percent last year.)
The bottom line, then, is that most Americans have good reason to feel
unhappy about the economy, whatever Washington's favorite statistics
may say.
This is an economic expansion that hasn't trickled down; many people
are worse off than they were a year ago.
And it will take more than a revamped administration sales pitch to
make people feel better.

at these statistics!"
Mi ricorda qc... in fondo tutto il mondo è paese

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tutta una certa destra e' paese...
Am.


scusa, ma sono cacchi loro.
Quando l`economia andava bene, gli americani hanno comprato case e auto
piu` grosse. Hanno deciso male.
Personalmente, me ne sto qui nel midwest nella mia casetta a un piano e
nu miezzo, con un mortgage basso basso, e guido `na Toyota, col
gagliardetto dell`Inter appeso al retrovisore.
Se uno nella vita prende decisioni sbagliate, la colpa non e` del
governo.