The discerning among you will realize that the official bean counters are at it again, manipulating statistical measurements to improve the picture of an essentially stagnant economy rigged to funnel wealth to the top 1% of the pile. When scrutinized by the New York Post, the chart revealed data relied upon has not had enough time in grade and is skewed by a temporary drop in gasoline prices. Gasoline prices have rebounded since 2015 which is the last year available for the data. Also, the Census Bureau started to tinker with the income data methodology in 2013 by changing the questions asked households--the usual dodge employed to tweak economic performance measurement. Still the rigged numbers did not prevent the political hucksters sent by Wall Street from touting the 'good news' to US Person & the Oppressed Classes. Here is a much more accurate representation of the change in median income over time provided by Doug Short at AdvisorPrespectives.com:
Nominal income reflects an upward trend since the depths of the Great Recession, but the bottom line is the blue line that shows a flat income curve when adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index. It shows a decrease of 1.1% in median household income instead of the largest increase since records began. Gee, what a difference the truth makes! Thanks, Mr. President!