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Issues Economy Economic Outlook

Reversing the "Upside-Down" Economy

The current economic recovery often has been described as a "job-loss" recovery, which is meant to capture a new quality to this recovery – a shrinking labor market among a growing economy. But there is another new quality that distinguishes this recovery from prior ones. It is an "upside down" economy, meaning the distribution of typical gains during a recovery in favor of personal income is reversed in this recovery. Profits are soaring to record heights and the share of additional income that has gone to profits is at a historic high. All the while income grew at the slowest rate in any recovery.

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