Income Inequality Grows Dramatically Under Barack the Terrible's Regime

This shouldn't surprise anyone except for the most hard-core leftist:

INCOME inequality in the United States has been growing for decades, but the trend appears to have accelerated during the Obama administration. One measure of this is the relationship between median and average wages.

The median wage is straightforward: it’s the midpoint of everyone’s wages. Interpreting the average, though, can be tricky. If the income of a handful of people soars while everyone else’s remains the same, the entire group’s average may still rise substantially. So when average wages grow faster than the median, as happened from 2009 through 2011, it means that lower earners are falling further behind those at the top.

One way to see the acceleration in inequality is to look at the ratio of average to median annual wages. From 2001 through 2008, during the George W. Bush administration, that ratio grew at 0.28 percentage point per year. From 2009 through 2011, the latest year for which the data is available, the ratio increased 1.14 percentage points annually, or roughly four times faster.

The reasons for the widening income gap aren’t entirely clear. Yes, the nation has had a big recession, but recessions typically tend to lessen inequality rather than increase it.

“We’re seeing the continued effects of the weak labor market and the long-term trends involving technology and globalization,” said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard, “Our self-inflicted wounds from austerity are also exacerbating things.”

It’s always possible that the data for 2012 will show a narrowing of the gap, but Professor Katz says he wouldn’t count on it.

"The reasons for the widening income gap aren't entirely clear"???????? Maybe not to the economic illiterates at the NY Times and in the administration of Barack the Terrible. Does the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats" mean anything to you? If not, notice that the growth of the income gap under Obama is four times what it was under Bush. Then check what it was during the Reagan Administration where economic policy was the exact reverse of what it is today.