Fast Fact

A 2000 gallon of milk cost $3, now it costs $4.

Real median household income dropped nearly $1,000 from 2000 to 2006.

At least 25 states face budget shortfalls in 2009. Twenty of these states face combined deficits of at least $34 billion. Most states cannot run a deficit or borrow to cover expenditures. As a result, states have three options: draw down available reserves, cut expenditures, or raise taxes. States already have begun drawing down reserves; the remaining reserves are insufficient to weather a downturn or recession. The other alternatives — spending cuts and tax increases — can slow a state’s economy during a downturn and contribute to the further slowing of the national economy.

According to today's release by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• Mass layoffs in December were the highest since September 2005 (which reflected Hurricane Katrina) and were the highest for any December since 2002.
• The finance and insurance industry registered record highs for mass layoffs and initial claims in 2007.
• The industries with the highest number of initial claims (representing 22% of all mass layoffs in December) were highway, street, and bridge construction; food service contractors; school and employee bus transportation; and temporary help services.
  

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  More detail, especially state and regional breakdowns, are in the source.

Labor unions now represent only 7.4 percent of the private economy; and workers are getting a smaller share of the profits they generate.

Wages are stagnant—and not keeping up with prices. Since Bush came to office gas prices have nearly doubled and average public college tuitions are up 42 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. But the median household income is down 2.7 percent over the same period. Before it was increased this year, the minimum wage had been frozen at $5.15 since 1997 and lost 20 percent of its value.

In 2006, what an average middle-income earner would spend on such necessities as health care, gasoline, and college tuition would range from $13,879 to $28,064.

Approximately $2 trillion worth of imported products entered the U.S. economy last year and experts project that this amount will triple by 2015. World imports have increased by 338 percent since 1974, with imports from China alone increasing nearly 3,900 percent just since 1985. The American trade deficit was over $817 billion in 2006.

Since 1974, the Consumer Products Safety Commission has lost 366 full-time employees and is projected to lose another 19 full-time employees in 2007.

Approximately $2 trillion worth of imported products entered the U.S. economy last year and experts convened by a government interagency panel project that this amount will triple by 2015. World imports have increased by 338 percent since 1974, with imports from China alone increasing nearly 3,900 percent just since 1985. The American trade deficit was over $817 billion in 2006.