A Revival of 1992’s Glum Mood - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/business/16leonhardt.html?ex=1358226000&en=efeb8e4a82c7104b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
A Revival of 1992's Glum Mood
The main problem now is that the good times are no longer good enough to carry the middle class through the bad times. For much of the last 35 years, the incomes of most workers have been growing far more slowly than they once did. In the current expansion, which started in 2001, the median weekly paycheck of workers has actually fallen 1 percent, once inflation is taken into account, according to the Labor Department.

Economists argue about the reasons for the great wage slowdown — technology, globalization, health care costs, the decline of unions, the rise of the new wealthy — but it clearly seems to have made people feel more vulnerable to small economic swings. In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, only 19 percent of those responding said the country was headed in the right direction. That was the lowest percentage since the early 1990s...MORE