[Berman:] We are minding your business this morning. There is a new study out from the Pew Research Center. It's very interesting. It talks about the middle class and it shows the middle class is falling behind the past 10 years. Christine Romans is here. She's been diving into this very big report.
[Baldwin:] It's big, very big.
[Berman:] What's inside?
[Romans:] It's called fewer, poorer, gloomier, the lost decade of the middle class, the end. No, that's what it is it kind of really quantifies what's happened to all of you and all of you are saying what happened to the middle class in the country. Middle class families are poorer, lower incomes than 10 years ago and that's the first time this happened since World War II. So, what we've lived there here, the Great Recession, with capital letters and has its own name, recessions usually don't. The Great Depression is the only one that did. Now, your Great Recession does, too. Middle class net worth, let's take a look at this. They put this into pretty stark relief. You can see middle class network is down over the next decade. I will keep vamping here and tell you bring up the middle class net worth. I don't see it. It's not there. OK. Well, it goes like this, OK? And then the middle class income also has fallen pretty dramatically, 69,487 is the middle class net income. That's down from a peak above 72 grand. And middle class lifestyle this is what I thought was pretty interesting 85 percent of you say it's more difficult now to maintain your lifestyle compared with 10 years ago, 85 percent saying it's harder to stay in the middle class. Now, who is to blame? This is so interesting as well. Most I mean, almost two-thirds of the middle class blames Congress. Congress and congressional policies over the past decade or so. Congress receives a lot of the blame. Banks and financial institutions, more than half of you say blame the banks. Large corporations and their policies for shareholder value, 47 percent of you. The Bush administration, 44 percent of you say it is their fault. Foreign competition, 39 percent. The Obama administration, 34 percent.
[Berman:] Interesting.
[Romans:] It's interesting. I think this is really interesting politically overall. A couple of things I found really fascinating. Two third of the middle class still say you can with hard work, you can get ahead. You're rewarded for hard work in this country. I think that's important. Also, the number one finding about education, it is the single most critical factor for staying in the middle class is a college education.
[Baldwin:] College, college, college.
[Romans:] You know, and it's hard when you tell this to Gen Y people, because there's all these other studies that show they're working crazy low pay jobs. They're not getting jobs in their field and they're really the lost generation. But over and over, you look at longer term the right investment in a college education is what is so critical, so critical to stay in the middle class.
[Baldwin:] And you were telling us quickly a woman in her early 40s is the
[Romans:] When you look at the demographics, it is like married women with a college education have the most financial security, married couples. Other studies have shown that it is now men who gain the advantage from marrying, not women, which is interesting. For years, it was women who married and got financial security and they were sort of the net beneficiary financially of marriage. Now it is men who are marrying. There is really interesting changes going on. This report, the lost decade of the middle class, it was a rough decade. Inside that report there is I think there's some road some sign posts for how we can try to stay in the middle class and strengthen the middle class.
[Berman:] A lot to know in there. Is there one more thing we need to know?
[Romans:] The one thing you need to know about your money for today, stock futures are trading higher. Minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting show it is weighing options to stimulate the economy. Those big Fed people sitting around that board are very closely watching what's happening and what has been a subpar recovery, trying to figure out if they need to do something. So, we'll continue watching that. Futures are higher.
[Baldwin:] OK. Christine, thank you.
[Romans:] You're welcome.
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