The economic crisis is one of the most talked about topics of the moment, but how ready are you to participate in the conversation?
The unemployment rate has been hovering above 9 percent for months and though economists expect that employers added more than 100,000 jobs in November, it won't be enough to drive down the jobless rate, according to Bloomberg News. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Eurozone is teetering on collapse as the debt crisis that started in Greece continues to spread.
As Americans face high joblessness and the risk that businesses could cut back as a result of the euro crisis, they've also been forced to contend with rising income inequality. The top one percent of earners saw their incomes grow by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, compared to the bottom fifth of earners only experienced 20 percent growth, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Concern over high unemployment, slow wage growth, a housing market crash and income inequality are fueling the Occupy protests across the country and around the world. But do you really know how bad things are? Take our quiz and find out.
Sources & Data:
Historic share of federal tax revenue - Senate Joint Committee on Taxation
International Gini coefficient comparison - CIA World Factbook
Employment & GDP data - Bureau of Labor Statistics & Bureau of Economic Analysis
S.E.C. enforcement actions data - S.E.C. official site
U.S. debt visualization
Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment FAQ
Wages & compensation comparison - Economic Policy Institute
Picture credits:
AP - Image 6 (left), 7
Getty Images - Images 2, 4, 5, 6 (right), 8
Economic Policy Institue - 9