Personal income up significantly for September

[6SpeedTA95]

Personal income increased $53.0 billion, or 0.5%, and disposable personal income increased $49.3 billion, or 0.5%, in September, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures increased $11.6 billion, or 0.1%. In August, personal income increased $47.2 billion, or 0.4%, DPI increased $46.4 billion, or 0.5%, and PCE increased $15.3 billion, or 0.2%, based on revised estimates.



The following is the unedited transcript of the news release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Personal income increased $53.0 billion, or 0.5%, and disposable personal income increased $49.3 billion, or 0.5%, in September, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures increased $11.6 billion, or 0.1%. In August, personal income increased $47.2 billion, or 0.4%, DPI increased $46.4 billion, or 0.5%, and PCE increased $15.3 billion, or 0.2%, based on revised estimates.

Wages and salaries

Private wage and salary disbursements increased $31.0 billion in September, compared with an increase of $10.1 billion in August. Goods-producing industries'' payrolls increased $1.3 billion, compared with an increase of $3.0 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased $0.4 billion, in contrast to an increase of $0.7 billion. Services-producing industries'' payrolls increased $29.7 billion, compared with an increase of $7.0 billion. Government wage and salary disbursements increased $1.8 billion, compared with an increase of $3.3 billion.

Other personal income

Supplements to wages and salaries increased $6.4 billion in September, compared with an increase of $5.3 billion in August. Proprietors'' income increased $3.2 billion in September, compared with an increase of $5.3 billion in August. Farm proprietors'' income increased $3.7 billion, compared with an increase of $3.4 billion. Nonfarm proprietors'' income decreased $0.5 billion, in contrast to an increase of $1.9 billion.

Rental income of persons increased $3.5 billion in September, compared with an increase of $2.7 billion in August. Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) increased $7.8 billion, compared with an increase of $7.5 billion. Personal current transfer receipts increased $3.4 billion, compared with an increase $14.5 billion. Contributions for government social insurance - a subtraction in calculating personal income - increased $3.9 billion in September, compared with an increase of $1.7 billion in August.

Personal current taxes and disposable personal income

Personal current taxes increased $3.7 billion in September, compared with an increase of $0.8 billion in August. Disposable personal income (DPI) - personal income less personal current taxes- increased $49.3 billion, or 0.5%, in September, compared with an increase of $46.4 billion, or 0.5%, in August.

Personal outlays and personal saving

Personal outlays - PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments increased $15.3 billion in September, compared with an increase of $19.1 billion in August. PCE increased $11.6 billion, compared with an increase of $15.3 billion.

Personal saving - DPI less personal outlays - was a negative $15.0 billion in September, compared with a negative $49.0 billion in August. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was a negative 0.2% in September, compared with a negative 0.5% in August. Negative personal saving reflects personal outlays that exceed disposable personal income. Saving from current income may be near zero or negative when outlays are financed by borrowing (including borrowing financed through credit cards or home equity loans), by selling investments or other assets, or by using savings from previous periods.

Real DPI and real PCE

Real DPI - DPI adjusted to remove price changes - increased 0.8% in September, compared with an increase of 0.2% in August. In September, the larger increase in real DPI than in current-dollar DPI reflected a decrease in the PCE implicit price deflator, which is used to deflate DPI. The decrease in the PCE price index primarily reflected decreases in energy prices. The PCE price index decreased 0.3% in September, in contrast to an increase of 0.3% in August. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2%, compared with an increase of 0.3%.

Real PCE - PCE adjusted to remove price changes - increased 0.4% in September, in contrast to a decrease of 0.1% in August. Purchases of durable goods increased 2.1%, in contrast to a decrease of 1.5%. Motor vehicles accounted for about one-third of the increase in September and accounted for the decrease in August. Purchases of nondurable goods increased 0.3% in September, in contrast to a decrease of 0.2% in August. Purchases of services increased 0.2% in September and in August.

This is fantastic news and its a significant jump. This seems to make sense though based on what I've read in various magazines and publications on wage/salary increases for the coming months.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend and we'll continue to have wage growth in the coming months.

[KatKanPlay]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

This is fantastic news and its a significant jump. This seems to make sense though based on what I've read in various magazines and publications on wage/salary increases for the coming months.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend and we'll continue to have wage growth in the coming months.

Still waiting for all this good news to trickle down my way...

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

This is fantastic news and its a significant jump. This seems to make sense though based on what I've read in various magazines and publications on wage/salary increases for the coming months.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend and we'll continue to have wage growth in the coming months.

If the Democrats take power and raise taxes, say goodbye to this trend.

[DosEquis]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

If the Democrats take power and raise taxes, say goodbye to this trend.

The market determines jobs and the price of labor, not taxes. Income managed to take off in the 1990s despite a 39.6% tax rate on the upper 1%.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

The market determines jobs and the price of labor, not taxes. Income managed to take off in the 1990s despite a 39.6% tax rate on the upper 1%.

This is a dangerous way of thinking, you dont think taxes influence the job market? Look what happened in the great depression.

[DosEquis]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

This is a dangerous way of thinking, you dont think taxes influence the job market? Look what happened in the great depression.

There are a variety of things that contributed to the great depression. Taxes were a very small and insignificant part of the equation.

As long as the tax increases are not totally out of line, like going from 32% to 52%, it will have little affect on wage growth. If they were to say... raise it on those who make more than 500k from 32% to 36%... we won't see much affect on wages.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

There are a variety of things that contributed to the great depression. Taxes were a very small and insignificant part of the equation.

As long as the tax increases are not totally out of line, like going from 32% to 52%, it will have little affect on wage growth. If they were to say... raise it on those who make more than 500k from 32% to 36%... we won't see much affect on wages.

Taxes are not a small and insigificant part of the equation. The initial depression wasn't brought on through heavy taxes, but it was greatly prolonged by repeated misuse of the federal reserve as well as significant tax increases on businesses and individuals. The data is VERY clear on this...Hoover over reacted and sunk us deeper into the depression. FDR took office and made things even worse with his fiscal policy.

[WickedLou9]

You need to look at the complete picture. It's not all flowers and puppies.

U.S. GDP Shows Weak 1.6% Growth in Q3: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

During Q3, U.S. gross domestic product slowed to an annual rate of 1.6% -- below the 2% forecast by economists and the slowest in three years. The economy has grown at a glacial 2.9% overall on the year so far. The report was a pail of cold water over the head of the Dow, which has set record highs in 13 of the last 19 sessions. Stocks opened lower after the report, the dollar fell in early trading, and Treasuries advanced. The housing slowdown appears to be the main culprit: investments in housing fell 17.4% in the quarter, the steepest slide since Q1 of 1991. Consumer spending, however, accelerated 3.1%, up from 2.6% in Q2, an indicator that some maintain augurs well for the economy despite the overall growth slowdown. The trade balance was a negative (exports increased 6.5% while imports rose 7.8%) but inventories proved less of a drag than expected. The weak auto sector scarcely made a dent in the report: motor-vehicle output added 0.7% to growth and consumer spending on cars added 0.4%.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/bu...0cnd-econ.html

The report also included a measure of inflation based on Americans’ personal spending. It showed no signs of accelerating in September, which is consistent with the Federal Reserve’s view that the slowing economy will moderate rising prices. Still, the inflation rate remains well above what the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, has said is healthy.
The Fed prefers that the “core rate” of growth of personal consumption spending, which excludes the volatile prices of food and energy, not exceed 1 percent a year, and it regards anything over 2 percent as too high. In September, the measure found a rise of 2.4 percent, compared with the same month in 2005.
Still, that was a little better than August, when the core rate was 2.5 percent, an 11-year high.
Economists said that the new figures made it more likely that the Fed will leave its short-term interest rates unchanged at its next meeting, while it waits to see whether inflation will continue to ebb.
Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist with MFR, an economic research firm, said that as long as growth does not slow faster than expected and price increases stabilize, “a somewhat uneasy stand-still is probably the most likely outcome for monetary policy.”
A cooling housing market threatens to hold the economy back in the coming months, with a similar effect on consumer spending.

It's not terrible, but it's not fantastic either. The economy is sort of OK.

[lew]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

The market determines jobs and the price of labor, not taxes. Income managed to take off in the 1990s despite a 39.6% tax rate on the upper 1%.

Taxes have a huge influence on our "free market."

[tbone]

Personal income takes into account all people and thus 1 rich person getting significantly richer can easily make up for 50 poor people getting poorer. I'm not saying this is true, but trying to point out that this is simply a nice number to spin.

[motivez]

All of this "strong economy" stuff is something that's simply not felt by the majority of the country..

Wages have been essentially stagnant, so seeing an increase makes me hopeful that eventually things are going to start getting better for people.. but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by motivez

All of this "strong economy" stuff is something that's simply not felt by the majority of the country..

Wages have been essentially stagnant, so seeing an increase makes me hopeful that eventually things are going to start getting better for people.. but I'm not going to hold my breath.

The Democrats have done a wonderful job in deceiving the American public into thinking the economy isn't strong. Is every aspect of the economy perfect? Of course not. But overall, the economy is doing very well.

It'll be interesting to see how the Democrats react when they gain power this Nov.

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by JaJae

The Democrats have done a wonderful job in deceiving the American public into thinking the economy isn't strong. Is every aspect of the economy perfect? Of course not. But overall, the economy is doing very well.

It'll be interesting to see how the Democrats react when they gain power this Nov.

overall it's getting by. I think it's a mistake to say that it's doing "Very Well" especially with so many mixed indicators, and the biggest indicator of them all, the GDP, showing a decline.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by motivez

All of this "strong economy" stuff is something that's simply not felt by the majority of the country..

Wages have been essentially stagnant, so seeing an increase makes me hopeful that eventually things are going to start getting better for people.. but I'm not going to hold my breath.

You mean the 95.4% that are employed? They dont feel it? Every single piece of good news that comes out is harped on and downplayed while every wobble or piece of bad news is blown out of proportion. Wages haven't been stagnant. They dropped sharply in the 01 recession and have been rising since 2003 just not at a rapid pace. People are doing pretty good...

[motivez]

I guess they've managed to fool people like Lou Dobbs into thinking that it's weak too?

Have you read anything about his book?

The economy might be doing well, but the average American is not. And that's a distinction that needs to be made.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by JaJae

The Democrats have done a wonderful job in deceiving the American public into thinking the economy isn't strong. Is every aspect of the economy perfect? Of course not. But overall, the economy is doing very well.

It'll be interesting to see how the Democrats react when they gain power this Nov.

I'm sure wages will continue to rise. The democrats and the media will then tout their record even though it has nothing to do with the fact that democrats got elected. They'll ignore the economic trends just like they ignored the trends of an impending recession when bush took office and blamed it on him.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by motivez

I guess they've managed to fool people like Lou Dobbs into thinking that it's weak too?

Have you read anything about his book?

The economy might be doing well, but the average American is not. And that's a distinction that needs to be made.

The average american is doing well...thats what you need to realize. Real incomes are down just over 1200 dollars since bush took office, but when you factor in the 1183 dollars in tax cuts that the median family recieved its basically a wash. Things are not perfect but they're doing very well, you can nit pick on issues all day long and it doesn't make the economy do bad just because "lou dobbs" or any other person says so. The economy has been fantastically strong and it has been completely downplayed. Hell even the liberal columnist in th emagazines I subscribe to know its been downplayed and they tlak about it fairly often.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by motivez

I guess they've managed to fool people like Lou Dobbs into thinking that it's weak too?

Have you read anything about his book?

The economy might be doing well, but the average American is not. And that's a distinction that needs to be made.

In my opinion Lou Dobbs is not a credible source for me to base my economic views on. He's become too radical.