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Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

census.gov

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Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#21

Post by electrograv »

jdavis703 wrote: post #18
electrograv wrote: post #9

How is "all time high" income surprising, given that inflation essentially guarantees perpetually increasing dollar amounts of everything?

The increase is measured in "real terms" which means things like CPI are taken in to account. Further this number does decrease, for example during the last recession, so household median income is not directly correlated with inflation -- especially in this era of low inflation (compared to the mid-to-late 20th century inflation) that we've been in for a while.

Thanks for the explanation! For a layperson like myself in this field, this was not immediately obvious from the qualifier "real".

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#22

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

Side note: The 5.8% decline in poverty is not explicitly stated. Per the report, the number of persons in poverty dropped by 2.5 million to 40.6 million. I added the 2.5 million back to 40.6 million to get the 2015 number, then divided it back into 2.5 million to get the 5.8% YoY decline from 2015 - 2016:

2.5 / (40.6 + 2.5) = 5.8%

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#23

Post by baron816 »

McBlorker wrote: post #4

I'm curious: is anyone at a point where they're pulling out of equities at all? I feel like things are getting a bit too good to be true in the markets. The Shiller P/E ratio is at a 2nd-time high - the only other higher time being the dot-com boom and bust: multpl.com/shiller-pe/

Trying to time the market is a well known suboptimal strategy. Just leave your money and try not to worry about it.

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#24

Post by joubert »

McBlorker wrote: post #4

I'm curious: is anyone at a point where they're pulling out of equities at all? I feel like things are getting a bit too good to be true in the markets. The Shiller P/E ratio is at a 2nd-time high - the only other higher time being the dot-com boom and bust: multpl.com/shiller-pe/

By pulling out do you mean liquidate existing holdings, stop increasing holdings, or something else?

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#25

Post by rmrm »

McBlorker wrote: post #4

I'm curious: is anyone at a point where they're pulling out of equities at all? I feel like things are getting a bit too good to be true in the markets. The Shiller P/E ratio is at a 2nd-time high - the only other higher time being the dot-com boom and bust: multpl.com/shiller-pe/

3 months ago I made a shift of 1/3 of my retirement funds to cash. I took 90% of my taxable accounts to cash. It's a risk, of course, everything is, but the valuations of stocks and housing are as you note high. I normally hate holding cash, but I don't see anything I want to invest in. I'm sure that will change eventually.

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#26

Post by virmundi »

McBlorker wrote: post #4

I'm curious: is anyone at a point where they're pulling out of equities at all? I feel like things are getting a bit too good to be true in the markets. The Shiller P/E ratio is at a 2nd-time high - the only other higher time being the dot-com boom and bust: multpl.com/shiller-pe/

I did. Lost 15% of possible gains. Back in for a bit. Have my inverse ETF ready for the crash. Until then XLK and the oil ETNs.

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#27

Post by acchow »

0xbear wrote: post #12
mattbgates wrote: post #6

My bank account says, "That was a lie."

Your bank account says “find a better job”. In today’s job market there’s really no excuse for anyone who can understand at least half the news posted on this site to make less than six figures.

You're getting downvoted to hell. I think you should flip the tone:

Everyone in this booming economy should either go around interviewing and getting job offers until they are satisfied or start their own business.

There's not much sense in complaining about your situation if you've done neither of those.

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#28

Post by dillondoyle »

McBlorker wrote: post #4

I'm curious: is anyone at a point where they're pulling out of equities at all? I feel like things are getting a bit too good to be true in the markets. The Shiller P/E ratio is at a 2nd-time high - the only other higher time being the dot-com boom and bust: multpl.com/shiller-pe/

I became a 'bear' after Trump election (I think unrealistic expectations) but I have been very wrong so far - and I don't work professional in finance so only a sample of one example. I sold off most of my play money and pulled down risk of long term holdings.

Lots of opportunity lost. I just can't get over the feeling of repetitious omens. My family (commercial real estate clan) says when new large office building construction goes up it tends to signal end of bull run. Where I live we are voting on a large bond on the back of HUGE growth in home values, last time we did this was 2007...

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#29

Post by jdavis703 »

electrograv wrote: post #21
jdavis703 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The increase is measured in "real terms" which means things like CPI are taken in to account. Further this number does decrease, for example during the last recession, so household median income is not directly correlated with inflation -- especially in this era of low inflation (compared to the mid-to-late 20th century inflation) that we've been in for a while.

Thanks for the explanation! For a layperson like myself in this field, this was not immediately obvious from the qualifier "real".

I'm also a layperson, so if a real economist posts something contradictory you'll probably want to listen to them. Of course economists are always contradicting each other so YMMV.

Re: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016

#30

Post by bluthru »

devrandomguy wrote: post #20
zappo2938 wrote: post #2

What happens when the US needs to start paying off the trillions in debt? I remember the last time things were good. It stopped being good quite rapidly. I don't know much about monetary and economic policy but I'm optimistically cautious. I can't imagine the US borrowing several trillion dollars to keep credit from freezing again.

A CEO once told me, "If you owe someone $1 million, then they own you. If you owe someone $1 billion, then you own them." I think that the orgs who are owed by US are primarily concerned with maintaining the status quo, rather than gutting the golden goose.

We're still using real money to pay interest on our debt, yes?
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