But it is also contributing to what may be the area's biggest problem, its growing inequality.
Explaining the causes of this growing inequality has spawned a mini-industry for trade and labour economists.
Where the report is muddled is in its attacks on growing inequality (as opposed to poverty and unemployment).
That would seem to imply growing inequality, with the rich getting richer faster than any other group is improving.
For over 20 years now, major media institutions have been reporting growing inequality in America, blaming it on Reaganomics.
Links between GDP growth and improving standards of public health are shown to be significantly weakened in the presence of growing inequality.
FORBES: Wealthier Nations, Healthier. But is That Always the Case?
One articulate Political Science major from upstate New York explained that structural changes in the U.S. economy have led to growing inequality and unemployment.
FORBES: Dispatch from Wall Street: What Happened to the Occupy Movement?
Trade unions believe that will lead to growing inequality as salaries in some parts of the country are frozen while others get pay rises.
BBC: Budget paves way for public sector postcode pay freezes
By detailing the economic slide of the average American, the Fed survey highlights a problem that is becoming increasing clear: growing inequality in our country.
Financial support needed to be "smarter" and geared towards supporting "progressive movements" capable of bringing about political change and tackling growing inequality, the pressure group said.
And what are the prospects for Scotland reversing the growing inequality of Britain in recent years - a favourite rallying cry of the "Yes Scotland" campaign?
And despite growing inequality in the U.S. over the last several years, Brazil has a ways to go before there is more uniformity in the social classes.
Although the Labour Party is now committed to low level of taxation and welfare spending, it has since 1997 nevertheless used fiscal policy to halt and even slightly reverse the growing inequality that characterised the 18 years of Conservative Government.
It said people need to know before the vote what specific policies parties had for tackling growing inequality and to develop a fuller understanding of what independence will mean in other areas beyond the starting point that will be set out by the Scottish government in its independence white paper.
Edwards ran a populist campaign, constantly highlighting what he saw as the country's growing class inequality.
The same is true of Labour's repeated charges of growing wage inequality and job insecurity.
Bernanke said technological change, globalization and the fading influence of unions all have contributed to growing income inequality.
He said growing income inequality could threaten the dynamism of the U.S. economy.
He warned that growing economic inequality threatened the future of the middle class.
But the chairman warned against responding to growing income inequality with policies that could undermine the very forces that fuel economic growth.
At a time of growing income inequality, it might even be beneficial.
ECONOMIST: American politics is both too rigid and too flexible
Ian O'Donnell, of University College Dublin, blames the increase on migration (labourers coming back from London), growing social inequality, and a rapid increase in beer consumption.
Still professing optimism, he said three huge problems could yet cloud our future: growing income inequality, too much political and economic instability, and an unsustainable energy regime.
Growing wealth inequality within the US is a direct result of globalism which has (as I think you hinted at) resulted in vast increases in living standards across the globe.
Nick Clegg tried to reclaim fairness as an issue for the Lib Dems by claiming Labour's new slogan - A Future Fair for All - was undermined by growing income inequality.
Does America have a growing wealth inequality problem?
FORBES: Why Cherry-Picked Facts Don't Tell The Whole Ultra-Wealthy Story
This is a crucial point, for there are good reasons to believe that the growing income inequality in Britain during the past 20 years reflects improvements in the efficiency of the economy, especially the labour market.
Our growing income inequality is a fact.
WSJ: Best of the Web Today: Not the Drones They Thought They Knew
Who among us is willing to tolerate high unemployment, anemic wage growth, growing income inequality, and to boot, a debt burden that is on track to equal the total output of the U.S. economy by the end of this decade?
FORBES: Despite Investors' Denial, The U.S. Economy Is Getting Better
应用推荐