Wonder where the money went?

It's there. All there ever was and more. You may not be getting any of it, but it's there. Harold Myerson...

Productivity increased 5.2 percent from the recovery's start in mid-2009 to the end of 2010, he found, but wages rose by a minuscule 0.3 percent. That means just 6 percent of productivity gains have gone to our newly more-productive workers.

Where is the other 94 percent going? To profits, which have been increasing at a record clip for the past three quarters. To funds on the corporations' balance sheets, which the Federal Reserve calculates at nearly $2 trillion. To shareholders. To the companies' stock buybacks.

We're not broke, but something's broken.

Chart of the day.

Via Jed Lewison...


No, we're no where near where we want to be. We're not even close to where we need to be. We're a lot closer, though, and a helluva lot better off, than we were.

It's worth keeping that in mind when the reports aren't rosy.

Link of the day.

recovery.gov

Some dare call it treason.

Steelworkers President Leo Gerard does…

To survive this economic catastrophe, Americans must assert themselves as economic patriots. They must stand up to the likes of the Chamber and the Roundtable and call them out for being economic traitors to the United States of America.

Me too.