Nearly two years into recovery, American households are still leaning heavily on the crutch of government ”” more specifically, government borrowing….
new personal income data from the Commerce Department, which include the impact of the recent 2-percentage-point payroll-tax cut, provide a window into the extraordinary support that the federal government is providing to consumers.
Three props to personal income ”” higher social insurance benefits, lower tax payments and higher government wages and benefits ”” are adding just shy of $1 trillion to personal income on an annualized basis relative to pre-recession levels.