Economic crisis began years ago

Things really are bad all over -- and they had gone bad even before the housing and finance industries crashed and sent the economy into a tailspin.

New census data show that throughout the first half of the decade, the slumping economy touched nearly every community in the country. Incomes dropped while poverty and unemployment rose in the vast majority of cities and towns.

Louisville's families haven't kept pace with inflation, according to the Census Bureau data.

The median household income last year was $43,791. Louisville's median income in the 2000 Census, adjusted for inflation, was $51,292. The city's poverty level rose to 14.3 percent, up from 12.4 percent.

Small and medium-sized cities in the Midwest, already suffering from an ailing auto industry, were hit the hardest, with unemployment rates doubling or tripling in communities throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

The numbers weren't as bad in other parts of the country, but no region was spared, with incomes dropping as home prices escalated. The result: an unsustainable housing market that ultimately fueled the current economic crisis.

"For a while we were on a binge of living beyond our means," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard and Poor's, the credit rating service. "We were financing our spending habits by treating houses like giant ATMs."

The data, which are being released today, provide the first detailed economic, social and demographic information for small- and medium-sized cities since the 2000 Census. It was collected from 2005 through 2007, providing a mid-decade snapshot of every community with at least 20,000 residents.

Census takers interview 3 million households a year for the survey by American Community Survey, which produces annual data for areas with populations of 65,000 or more. For areas with at least 20,000 people, the survey produces three-year averages.

The new numbers explain why the housing bubble burst and why the economy was such a big issue in this year's presidential campaign. They also explain why voters soured so much on President George W. Bush's handling of the economy, even before the current financial crisis.

The years covered by the report include the housing market at its peak. Incomes had started to rise while poverty and unemployment rates had begun to fall, following the recession earlier in the decade.

But in the vast majority of cities and towns, economic conditions never fully reached the prosperity that marked the beginning of the decade.

It's not surprising that many communities were doing better in 2000 than they were mid-decade, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com.

"The year 2000 was at the end of an incredible boom that lasted a decade," Hoyt said.

Incomes were up, unemployment was down and the dot-com bubble had not yet burst on Wall Street.

"We just didn't have enough years of expansion" this decade, he said.

Reporter Marcus Green contributed to this story.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081209/BUSINESS/812090342/1003

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Economic crisis began years ago