What have these indicators been telling us recently about the...

 

What have these indicators been telling us recently about the current and future state of the U.S. economy? How could these recent readings of the indicators be used in helping businesses decide whether to acquire other businesses or sell off one or more of its own divisions?

I'll answer it briefly. 

When it comes to our nation's economy, it can easily seem like there's nothing but good news. Headlines repeatedly highlight low unemployment and ongoing job growth, which contributes to a public narrative that the economy is strong. The Great Recession, it seems, must be behind us.

But if the recession is indeed a thing of the past, it's only past for some. Digging deeper exposes that middle and low-income workers and their families in the United States have not reaped their share of the benefits of the apparent recovery, benefits that such a recovery should produce for all, and not only the few. Data shows that, in fact, it's only wealthier households and larger corporations that have gained noticeably since the recession ended a decade ago. This is because long-developing trends of inequality have proven impervious to the decade's economic growth.

It's no surprise that boasts of a record-breaking economic recovery ring hollow to most Americans, for whom today's wages are barely enough—and often not enough—to meet their basic needs, let alone the conditions of a modern middle-class life, like adequate health care and a quality education for their kids. And the wealthier of us shouldn't sit smugly on the rewards they're reaping from this lopsided prosperity: these economic failings don't only matter to the lower classes. Rather, they are a symptom of declining investment and productivity growth, declines that threaten not only the strength of the current economy but its fortunes in decades to come. If these unbalanced conditions aren't corrected, and soon, then everyone loses.

This report seeks to make those conditions clear: that not only is the economy weaker than the headlines, and the current administration's rhetoric, would have us believe, but also the gains, however unequal, that it has acquired rest on fragile grounds indeed. The report will do so by delineating a set of straightforward facts about the current economy, based on and demonstrated through wide-reaching data, that will illustrate the weaknesses that lie just below the surface of the most frequently reported numbers.