Which is the best indicator of how well the economy is doing?

[ColbertWatcher]

There is no "other" choice for this poll.

Also, please note "unemployment" is meant to be real unemployment numbers not the imaginary ones the GOP uses.

[BootinUp]

1. Other

McSame retracting his statement that the economy is fundamentally sound.

[yourout]

2. Real unemployment numbers......not the Bushco version.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Yes, I guess I could put that in there. n/t

[madeline_con]

3. How beat Duh-bya looks every time he's on TeeVee.

You know it's in the shitter.

[LSdemocrat]

4. Other: Inflation adjusted household incomes

[VP505]

6. One trip to the grocery store

with a stop at the gas station is all that's needed for most middle class people to know how well the economy is doing for them.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Other--

The balance in Jackpine's bank account

[Warpy]

8. New car sales

because they represent both a non necessity and faith that the future will continue to provide the same job at the same income for the life of the car loan.

People tend to vote "no confidence" in a failing economy there first.

[protect our future]

11. I voted "new car sales" also. n/t

[PerfectSage]

9. The stock market is the best predictor of where the economy is going.

We've been in a bear market since January. SP500 and Dow started hitting 52 week lows in January for the first time since Oct/2002.

imo At least 1 probably 2 more years of bear market left.

[protect our future]

12. Didn't the market start downhill in the fall of '07 and never recovered?

Like around October?

[PerfectSage]

13. The top occured in oct/2007

The breakdown to 52 week lows for the first time since oct/2002(bottom of the last bear market) occured in January.

So at that point I was 100% sure a bear market had started. Whereas in the fall/2007 I thought a bear market was probably coming, but without 100% certainty.

[Naturyl]

10. Poverty rates.

A society is judged by how well it treats its least fortunate.

[morgan2]

14. gdp growth combined with income distribution tables

[TexasObserver]

15. Median family income, adjusted for inflation, is the best indicator.

[The Gunslinger]

18. I agree. and unfortunately its going down.

[Selatius]

19. Using that ruler, the US economy has been staggering since Reaganomics 1980s.

Since then, median family income has not grown at the same rate it grew in the 1950s through 1970s. By the middle 1990s, it stagnated, and in this decade, it has actually started to shrink.

[tokenlib]

16. not just unemployment but underemployment which is just as scary..

..too many educated workers or former manufacturing workers getting stuck in service sector limbo. Plummeting standards of living as a result...

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Wednesday kick. n/t