In The News...

For most of this decade, worker productivity rose significantly while the economy grew much stronger - but middle class American's real income fell. The median real income for working-age middle-income families in the United States dropped $2,000 between 2000 and 2007, from about $58,500 to $56,500, the US Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The government reported this week that bankruptcy filings soared 29% in the 12 months that ended June 30. Total filings rose to 967,831 from 751,056 a year earlier. "As we continue to hear more bad economic news, we will continue to see bankruptcies spiral upwards," said Jack Williams, resident scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute.

A revised report on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showed that the US economy grew by 3.3% in the second quarter after the previous number showed a 1.9% increase and was ahead of expectations of 2.7%. Over the past year, the economy has grown 2.2% and grew at a 4.6% annual pace to $14.31 trillion annualized. Economy-wide inflation jumped 4.2% in the quarter.

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