The Census Bureau has just released its 2013 edition of "Income and Poverty in the United States," sometimes called the nation's "economic report card." It depicts a country that is slowly — but convincingly — recovering from a calamitous slump. As always, the report bulges with figures. Let me highlight five trends that seem significant.
First: Middle-class incomes have dropped to levels of the late 1980s or early 1990s. In a recent column based on a study from the Federal Reserve, I showed that this was the case. Now, the Census report confirms it. In 2013, the income of the median household — the one exactly in the middle — was $51,939.
Though level with 2012, this was down from $56,436 in 2007 just before the financial crisis and was nearly identical to the 1990 median of $51,735. This is sobering. (All figures are adjusted for inflation and given in "2013 constant dollars.")