Soothing Thirsty Emerging Markets

Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s an empirical fact that Americans were at their most prosperous under President Bill Clinton.

During his administration, median household income reached a historic peak of $45,932 in 1999, according to US Census Bureau data. Two presidents and 12 years later, that figure has fallen to $50,054.

While that might not seem like a huge slide for any one family, when spread across the estimated 114.8 million households in America, the figure amounts to a loss of almost $560 billion in annual income nationwide. That represents a lot of car and mortgage payments, diapers, shoes, potato chips, and everything else that wasn’t purchased from businesses both large and small.

A host of factors are to blame for the decline in American prosperity, not the least of which is an unemployment rate that has stubbornly remained above 8%. Those who’ve found work are making about 17% less money in their new positions, according to data from the US Department of Labor.

But even as American incomes fall, indebtedness continues to sap spending power. In the average American household, almost 11% of income goes toward debt service, although that number is thankfully falling.