The Atlantic – A record year for stocks. A meh year for wages. A weird year for Wall Street, by Matthew O’Brien
“Maybe it’s just me, but the last few years are getting tough to tell apart. Imagine a quiz question: Name that year where we threw obstacles in the recovery’s way, but kept growing slowly; where Europe avoided both a disaster and a solution to its mess; and where China kept growing over 7 percent, but didn’t rebalance its economy like it said it wants. You’d be right to guess 2013. You’d also be right to guess 2012, 2011, or 2010. So, to remind ourselves what did change in the last 12 months, we asked our favorite economists, journalists, and think-tankers for their favorite charts of the year. The stock market went on a tear, the labor market didn’t, and Wall Street and Main Street came to terms with a New Normal. Without further ado, here are 37,000 words worth of charts to tell the most important stories of 2013…”