Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

The Middle-Class Squeeze Isn't Made Up

The economic anxiety experienced by a wide swath of Americans is very real.

February 15, 2017 at 11:00 AM UTC

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

There's no point in pretending.
Photographer: Andrew Lichtenstein/Getty images

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Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said “There are three type of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.”1487109033035

Today let's address the third component of Disraeli's formulation in the context of a recent National Review article with the headline, “The Myth of the Stagnating Middle Class.” The article observes that “more Americans have easier lives today than in years past.”