from David Ruccio

Let’s end the year with some important charts assembled by Steven Rattner.

Yes, economic growth picked up and financial markets soared to new record highs. But—and it’s a big but—wages remained stagnant (barely budging in real terms), income inequality got worse (increasing from already grotesque levels), the tiny minority at the top made out like bandits (just as they were doing before 2007), and government programs (even with a Democratic president and Senate) did little to ameliorate the effects of stagnant wages and growing inequality.

That’s what 2014 looked like in the United States. And nothing about 2015 looks to change those trends.