Study: Americans Have Rebuilt Less than Half of Wealth Lost During Recession

"Look, the really important thing is that you'll soon be forced to buy crappy-- I mean government approved health insurance that you can't afford. Oh, and if you become a paperless household you'll save $20 million a year. You'll all be rich!"

Nice recovery. I wonder if it has anything to do with record high unemployment, higher taxes, looming health care costs?

From The Washington Post  article by Ylan Q. Mui: (via Instapundit)

American households have rebuilt less than half of the wealth lost during the recession, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve, hampering the country’s economic recovery. 

The research from the St. Louis Fed shows that households had accumulated net worth totaling $66 trillion at the end of last year. After adjusting for inflation and population growth, the bank found that meant families on average have only made up 45 percent of the decline in their net worth since the peak of the boom in 2007.  

In addition, most of the improvement was due to gains in the stock market, according to the report, primarily benefiting wealthy families. That means the recovery for most households was even weaker.

Amusingly, the article doesn't go into the reasons why the recovery is so tough, except for vaguely mentioning a lack of household wealth. Gee, I wonder where all that household wealth comes from? A job, maybe? I wonder if Mui ever gave any thought to the idea that since the job market sucks, the economy sucks?

Oh well, I'm sure there's not really a connection and that the answer is for government to redistribute wealth to those struggling. That should create a permanent solution. Right?