Personal Income in 2010

Maybe things were better than we thought:

Personal income rose in 2010 in all but four of the nation’s 366 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Personal income in the metropolitan portion of the United States rose 2.9 percent in 2010 after falling 1.9 percent in 2009.  Personal income growth in 2010 ranged from 10.1 percent in Elizabethtown, Kentucky to -0.9 percent in Grand Junction, Colorado.  Inflation, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, accelerated to 1.8 percent in 2010 from 0.2 percent in 2009.

Here is the BEA news release.  PDF Definitions and Tables available at this link.

We fall into the "Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH", number 10 in size across the fruited plain (2010 population of 4,552,402, or an increase of 3.67%) and stretches from Boston to Worcester to Manchester (thus including parts of MA, RI and NH).

The BEA attributes the growth in the top four areas (Elizabethtown, KY, Lawton, OK, Manhattan, KS, and Hinesville, GA) to government spending, and, in particular, military spending.  Frankly, I would point to BRAC Realignments and suggest that it is robbing Peter to pay Paul. This isn't Keynes, but anti-Keynes.

Regards  —  Cliff