Stalker alert! Its name: The Economy, stupid

Add comment June 10th, 2008

Americans increasingly fear that the national bargain has unraveled, that their once-steady march toward affluence has derailed, so says a new USA TODAY story. The most recent official data indicate that in 2006, half of all families made more than $58,407 and half made less. That compares with an inflation-adjusted peak of $59,398 in 2000.

This financial stall marked the first time since World War II that the typical family was worse off at the end of an economic expansion than at the start, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-of-center think tank in Washington, D.C.And that was before a financial crisis emerged last year from a remote corner of the U.S. housing market to stalk every worker, firm and family.

That’s why I’m feeling so fiscally uneasy. I’m being stalked. Good analogy, I think.

Barack Obama’s style won’t allow him to use Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

But he is going after McCain’s economic policies. Wonder what Obama’s coined phrase might be.

Any suggestions?