| Two items in the news today.
Big Oil reaped record-setting profits this quarter, thanks to rising gas prices. According to the New York Times, Exxon-Mobil made $11.68 billion this quarter, an increase of 14 percent.
In other news, economic growth was weaker this quarter than expected. Experts guess that whatever growth we did experience this quarter was mostly the result of emergency stimulus packages, and, as "the bracing tonic of the tax rebates fades, the economy could be in for another rough patch this year." Layoffs "rose sharply," unemployment claims "jumped," and workers' wages remained stagnant, despite a relatively high rate of inflation, especially at the pump.
Of course middle-class earnings and economic well-being have been stagnant, or worse, throughout the Bush years.
But, as today's jousting news articles clearly attest, the economy has not been stagnant for everybody in the world of trickle-down economics. |
