Real Economics Lesson - Growth Rates
Regardless of what we are always being told by the venerable Pantheon of pedigreed Economists out of Washington, DC , Wall Street , and academia (as well as by the seemingly cynical grumblings of self-professed "Main Street" economists -- I am one of those myself -- and I have growing misgivings regarding the utility of my undergraduate degree in Economics ) regarding the state of the our sovereign finances , most of us develop a powerful "feel" for how well the machinery of monetary and fiscal policy are working by our own personal finances . If my income is increasing, but at a lower annual rate than my ordinary living expenses (including my repayment of the debts which I incurred to either live beyond my means or to purchase investments that my neighbor (a smart fellow) said were " sure things ") are increasing, I feel a decline in my sense of well-being. My finances are continuously getting tighter. This seems to make sense (except to people who...