Wonder where the money went?

Some people still seem to be confused about why so many seem to think the economy is doing so poorly when the markets seem to be doing so well. Surprise! Turns out there is a class war, after all, and that the corporate class is kicking butt.

Susan at Suburban Guerrilla, who does a generally great job on the economic beat, came up with this nugget.

"Despite the well-advertised pick-up of job growth, recent trends in real wage income remain very disappointing," lamented Stephen S. Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, in a June 7 memo to clients. "This, in my view, underscores one of the most serious shortcomings of this recovery -- an unprecedented shortfall of the most important piece of personal income growth," wages and salaries.

Over the first 29 months of the economic recovery, total wages and salaries have risen less than 3 percent after adjusting for inflation -- a fraction of the 9 percent gains of the previous six upturns, Roach said. That works out to a $280 billion income gap between where workers are and where they should be, he concluded.

And Kevin Drum chimes in on the "picture worth 1000 words" front with a graphic depiction of the disparity between personal and corporate incomes.



See, math isn't so hard after all...