It Depends on One’s Definition of ‘Expansion’

You'd never know it from the current economic squeeze on millions of hard-pressed working Americans and retirees, but the period running from 2001 to 2007 is actually being touted as one of the nation's longest periods of "economic expansion" since the end of World War II.

However, a just-released analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that the 2001-2007 expansion was good for only one part of the economy — corporations. Big surprise. For the period, corporate profits rose at an average annual rate of 10.3 percent, some 40 percent higher than the average profit growth of corporations during all other post-war economic expansions.

Actually, every other economic indicator was below the growth rate for earlier expansions. Here's how everyone else did between 2001 and 2007:

•  Household income declined $1,000
•  Highest inflation in 17 years
•  Gas prices up 200 percent
•  Over 1.8 million jobs lost
•  10 million more Americans without health insurance

To view chart - Stagnating Wages - click here.