Little by little, you turn to the middle: The middle class is receiving less of America’s total income, its smallest share in decades, as median wages stagnate in the economic doldrums and wealth concentrates at the top. A study released today by the Pew Research Center highlights diminished hopes, too, for the roughly 50% of adults defined as middle class, with household incomes ranging from $39,000 to $118,000. The report describes this mid-tier group as suffering its “worst decade in modern history,” having fallen backward in income for the first time since the end of World War II. Read the full story here.
Shine a light: U.S. regulators mandated today that public companies disclose information about their use of minerals from Congo, where militias linked to atrocities have profited from mining minerals used in electronics, jewelry and other goods. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to adopt a rule requiring public companies to disclose annually their efforts to trace the minerals back to their sources. The SEC also voted 2-1 to require producers of oil, natural gas or minerals to disclose any payments involving commercial development that they make to the United States or a foreign government. The full details are available here.
Talk, talk, talk: The Federal Reserve sent its strongest signal yet that it is preparing to take new steps to bolster the the nation’s recovery, saying that measures would be needed fairly soon unless economic growth picks up substantially, The Wall Street Journal reports. The statement was included in minutes released today from the Fed’s July 31-Aug. 1 policy meeting. The minutes also indicated that a new round of bond buying, known as quantitative easing, was high on its list of options. The full story is available here.
