Amid a Painful Economic Meltdown, Will Obama Be Bold Enough to Win?

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on September 13, 2008, Printed on September 13, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/98495/

Voters may not follow every twist and turn of the election -- they may not brush up on each of the candidates' policy proposals -- but they know when they're hurting economically, and almost unprecedented numbers now say the country is on "the wrong track."

The Bush years have been bad. In fact, as economist Jared Bernstein noted, when one compares the economic peak of the past cycle, in 2000, with the high point of the business cycle that just ended in 2007, households in the middle actually lost ground, earning $300, adjusted for inflation, less than they did in 2000. The worst this group had done in previous business cycles occurred during the 1970s, when median income "only" increased by about $2,000. In comparison, the income for a family in the middle rose by almost four grand during the 1990s.