An article at the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank's website, "Wages, Expectations, and Prospects for Inflation" (hat tip The Atlantic), includes a compelling graphic, "Expected Change in Family Income." It charts the median answer to a question, "By about what percent do you expect your (family) income to increase during the next 12 months?" asked each month by the University of Michigan in its Survey of Consumers.

Although it doesn't seem to be the author's intention, the image of a relentless slide over the course of the past three decades serves as a depressing reminder of what the U.S. has become: a country where ordinary Americans are finding it harder and harder to get by, and where they and their loved one are forced to keep downgrading their expectations about the future.

Maybe it's all in my head, but it struck me how much at odds this image of where things stand in today's America is with another one that Washington and Wall Street like to harp on about:

Some might say this is simply more evidence that America's days as the leader of the free world are numbered. Agree?