Pub. 15 2018 Issue 4

12 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G N E W M E X I C O R E A L I Z E D R E A M S By Mark Anderson, Legal and Legislative Assistant, New Mexico Bankers Association An Examination of the Current Economy O ver the past several years, conventional wisdom among politicians and the media has been that the U.S. economy is booming. Two factors that are generally cited are unemployment rate and a surging stock market. However, it’s worth exploring whether the economy is as strong as many believe and what various underly- ing factors signal. Also, what do factors such as the stock market and the unem- ployment rate really indicate about the strength of the economy? Since 2012, the U.S. economy has experienced uninterrupted job growth. Both the Obama and Trump administra- tions cited the lowering unemployment rate and jobs numbers as evidence that the economy was improving and, even- tually, booming. However, the positive message has largely not been felt in the paychecks of the average Ameri- can worker. Average wage growth has hovered between 2%-3% over the last few years, which is low considering the length of economic expansion. Factor- ing in an increase of inflation, most of those wage gains have been completely canceled out. The economy is perhaps the number one issue on the minds of both American workers and politicians. Naturally, when President Obama was in office, many op - posed to his policies would often disagree with the notion of a booming economy, citing a lack of real wage growth for Amer- ican workers and many of the jobs coming into the economy being low-paying. Now An economy where the growth is strictly at the top becomes an oligarchy, defined as a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people.