How to Get Rich Without Even Trying

If you held a job during the Great Depression you saw your relative income and wealth rise as the currency depreciated. It is happening all over again. Here is Dean Baker pointing this out in his blog:

Suppose Real Wages Rose by 15 Percent and No One Noticed

Well, you don't have to suppose. In the last three months, real wages did in fact rise at a 14.8 percent annual rate, and no one in the media noticed, or if they did, they didn't bother mentioning it.

The basic story is simple. Nominal wages have continued to grow at a modest 3.2 percent annual rate. Meanwhile prices have plunged, mostly importantly the price of oil. This implies rapidly rising real wages. That is very good news for the folks who still have a job.

Reporters should have been talking about the surge in real wages, but they seem to have largely missed it. Here's a column I wrote on the topic.

--Dean Baker