The data are aggregate measures. I have no doubt that for, say, the top 20% of earners, wages did outpace inflation. Maybe the next 30% were able to tread water. The bottom 50%, however, are likely on a sinking ship.
That is the question
It's been a while but lots of the real gems (precious metals too) have already been sold for a profit so there's not as much upside as there was traditionally.
Without hard-asset inflation, the dollar could turn out to be one of their least-performing assets, and you know they can't have that.
That's the best description of what good politicians can do that I've ever heard.
If Americans own stock at all (38% don't), the majority of it is in retirement accounts.
Last year, the median income was still below 2019: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N
It would probably be best with deep empathy from the heart, which seems to be in extremely short supply from some camps, and nothing else seems to be working.
Social security / medicare are indexed to inflation.
The s&p500 outperformed inflation. (And treasury interest rates - 3 month and 10 Year - are ~<2x cpi and cpi targets for the first time in ~20 years)
How do you convey ideas to voters when the basis of the idea is feeling vs fact, outlier vs median?
https://www.marketplace.org/2024/10/30/wage-growth-slowing-o...
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/awifactors.html