The Fed sacrificed the foundation of middle class wealth–stable housing values–to boost bank profits.
Lest you think the phrase “death of the middle class” is hyperbole, please examine these two charts, keeping in mind the middle class by definition must be in the middle of income/wealth distribution–conventionally, between 40% and 80%, i.e. the 40% between the bottom 40% and the top 20%.
See that little red wedge? That’s the bottom 80%–the entire middle class and everyone below the middle class.
Here’s another look at the wealth distribution:Â the middle class’s share of wealth is modest, unless you define the top slice of households just below the top 1% as “middle class.” But since the top 19% cannot be in the “middle,” attempting to boost the wealth of the middle class by including the wealthy is truly Orwellian.
Why has the middle class eroded? We can start by looking at income. As noted yesterday in Fed to the Sharks, Part 1, household income for the bottom 90% has stagnated for 40 years.
The next chart shows how financialization boosted asset valuations in waves of boom and bust. Some of the first two waves of financialization leaked into wages, but the Fed’s bubble-blowing since 2009 has failed miserably to increase incomes: disposable income fell off a cliff in 2009 and has continued falling, despite the Fed’s blowing new bubbles in bonds, stocks and housing.
So what does the Fed have to do with the death of the middle class? As noted in What’s the Primary Cause of Wealth Inequality? Financialization (March 24, 2014), the short answer is when investment returns exceed economic growth, the rich get richer, increasing inequality.
And when do investment returns exceed economic growth? When the Federal Reserve makes credit very cheap for financiers and speculators, which drives up asset prices as everyone with access to cheap credit bids up assets.
