Prices Up, Wages Flat

   The economy is doing well and investors are happy, as benefits go largely to stockholders and corporations.
   For average Americans who have to work for a living, however, there's a different story. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was up 2.1 percent for the 12 months ended in January, while wages rose a bare 0.1 percent. On net, then, worker income was down.
  So while politicians gloat about how they are responsible for how great things are, emphasizing the good while ignoring the not so great, and predicting economic growth of 3 percent or more for the nation as a whole, the price of a cup of espresso at Starbucks goes up by 30 cents but average consumer income does not.
   Yes, Gross Domestic Product is measured by the prices of goods and services sold, which is really the only semi-reliable way to do it, and soaring stock values on Wall Street measure investor confidence that share prices will continue to rise, but what about the folks waiting for a pay increase?
   Washington politicos are bragging about the benefits of the tax reform package they just enacted, but closer looks by those who read past the gobbledygook see that the supposed pay hikes announced by a few major corporations are really one-time bonuses paid to a few, while the company benefits more from additional tax reductions.