I had a piece last week on media reports that the gender wage gap is widening.

The alleged widening was so slight as to be statistical white noise. Here's the real economics story: half of working Americans are making less than $30,000 a year.

This number comes from a report on wage statistics for 2014 that Social Security has just released.

This report has gotten less attention than the hopped-up gender wage gap story, probably because the Social Security stats lead to the inescapable conclusion that Obama era economic policies are a bust. A headline on a blog nails what this means:  "Good-bye, Middle Class."

What does $30,000 a year look like? The Daily Caller boils it down:  

That’s $2,500 a month before taxes and just over the federal poverty level for a family of five. The new numbers come from the National Wage Index, which SSA updates each year based on reported wages subject to the federal income tax.

In 2014, half of working Americans reported an income at or below $28,851 (the median wage), and 51 percent reported an income of less than $30,000. Forty percent are making less than $20,000. The federal government considers a family of four living on an income of less than $24,250 to be impoverished.

With economic figures such as these, the presidential candidate of the party in power ordinarily would be doomed. However, Hillary Clinton is being proclaimed as our next president the basis of a confident and smooth (though not necessarily candid) performance before the Benghazi select committee last week.

We should at least talk about the stagnant economy before she moves into the White House, right?