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American household incomes rebounded ahead of election year, hitting pre-pandemic levels
American household incomes rebounded ahead of the election year, with the typical family locking in a 4% bump in earnings in 2023, according to new U.S. Census data. It’s the first time since 2019 that households have enjoyed a significant earnings increase, the agency said.
Median household income jumped to $80,610 in 2023, roughly on par with Americans’ 2019 earnings level on an inflation-adjusted basis. The income gains also come as inflation eased last year, thanks to a series of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve aimed at cooling the economy.
While the data tracks economic performance from 2023, there are signs that U.S. households have continued to make financial gains so far this year. For one, wages have have been pacing ahead of inflation since May 2023, providing more buying power for budget-pinched consumers.
And inflation has continued to cool into 2024, with economists forecasting the Consumer Price Index sank 2.6% last month on an annual rate, which would mark the smallest increase since March 2021. The government will release the August inflation data at 8:30 a.m. on September 11.
“Today’s data highlight the extraordinary strength of the recovery from the economic crises caused by the pandemic, a recovery driven by policy choices — particularly large fiscal relief and recovery packages — that aimed to quickly heal the labor market,” Elise Gould and Josh Bivens, economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, noted in a Tuesday research note.
“The rapid growth of household incomes charted in today’s data is powerful evidence that the policy approach of recent years was the right choice,” they added.
The figures could become a talking point in the presidential campaign if Vice President Kamala Harris were to point to them as evidence that Americans’ financial health has largely recovered after inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022.
But former President Donald Trump might counter that household income grew faster in his first three years in office than in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, though income fell during his administration after the pandemic struck in 2020.
— With reporting by the Associated Press.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
