Peak American Labor per Capita

Click to enlarge.

The record high of 11.03 hours per capita was set in April of 2000. I see very little evidence that a new record will ever be reached.

From a long-term perspective, we are currently in the illusion of prosperity's unwinding phase. Put another way, we're in a cyclical bull market within a secular bear market. It's just an opinion of course. Your opinion may vary.

September 18, 2007
Suze Orman vs. Warren Buffett

I'm afraid that the people selling are the little investors. - Suze Orman, April 2000

Fabulous economy. Best that we've had in forever, almost. - Suze Orman, April 2000

Speaking of fabulous economies...

August 31, 2006
Why Do Americans Hate their Fabulous Economy?

Polls consistently show that Americans are rather negative about the economy, and many have wondered why that might be considering that our economy is the envy of the world (as well it should be). The source of our pessimism is a bit of a mystery, and it is one that I am going to pursue. For the moment, I'll simply note that I have identified what may be a contributing factor to our unwarranted despair: reporters rarely use charts, and that allows them to wax poetic about the 'jobless recovery,' 'worrisome signs of inflation,' 'record setting deficits,' and other such nonsense. Charts anchor the mind to the raw data, which makes it hard to use bumper-sticker slogans that mislead (and demoralize) more than they clarify. In any story about the economy, there is never an excuse not to use a chart, but reporters almost never do.

In hindsight, that's just priceless. It would seem that the original source of that quote has been [nearly] permanently deleted. The Internet is not [nearly] so forgiving though. It is very difficult to undo what was once said in public.

As for being a reporter, I don't need an excuse to use a chart. I dwell on them. This "fabulous economy" has *so* many trend failures that I can't even begin to keep up. They fascinate me, both in quantity and quality, lol. Sigh.

This is not investment advice, but it does lean heavily towards gallows humor.

Source Data:
BLS: Employment
St. Louis Fed: Population