JOHN TAMNY: ‘America’s Raise’ Wholly Ignores the Real Story of U.S. Income.

What left and right properly pointed out about the median income news is that income was even higher in 1999. So if we ignore for now just how easy it is to twist statistics, the simple truth is that Americans got a raise in 2015 to levels that would have distressed the 1999 worker. Even more interesting is the sad reality that the 1999 dollar was quite a bit more valuable than the one in 2016. Deep thinkers view the mere mention of gold as low rent, but the dollar bought roughly 1/279th of an ounce of gold in 1999 versus less than 1/1300th of an ounce in 2016. Gasoline back then retailed for about .98 cents a gallon.

The above figures hopefully remind us that modern income gains are somewhat illusory, but they’re most useful for explaining what has been sixteen years of wage stagnation. More than elite thinkers would ever like to admit, 21st century wage stagnation has sprung from a lack of investment. Unquestionably. Because when investment soars, so does worker productivity and wages. Companies very much want to give out raises. But when investment lags, so does productivity, and with it so do wages stagnate.

Investing is a sucker’s bet so long as the Fed keeps King Dollar dethroned and Washington picks the winners and losers.