A healthy and growing economy should be good news, but CNBC claimed it could put marriages at risk.
Although the liberal media often talk, downplay, or spin economic news, CNBC provided a very strange complaint about the current “strong economy” on June 1. It warned “marriage could suffer” because of economic strength.
CNBC personal finance reporter Jessica Dickler wrote that given the relative strength of the economy today, marriages could be in trouble or at risk of divorce.
She cited good economic news including higher economic growth in the first quarter, “continuing strength” of the jobs market, and concluded “incomes generally are higher across the board.”
But that was bad news for married couples, according to Dickler.
She said that “more couples are experiencing trouble” in this period of growth, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). She also referred to a 2018 study from Northwestern Mutual, which found that financial anxiety posed the biggest risk to one’s relationship with a spouse or partner.
AAML claimed that the group saw a decline in the number of divorces during recessions “by an almost 2-to-1 margin.”
Matrimonial lawyer and former AAML chapter president Michael Stutsman told CNBC that when economic times are better “people feel there’s more money left over” following a divorce. Yet, Dickler blamed tax code changes under the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for eliminating the tax-deductible status division of property and alimony payments.
However, that doesn’t really explain away the fact that the U.S. divorce rate has been dropping since the early 1990s, according to the World Economic Forum.
Ultimately, complaining that people (especially rich people trying to split up assets like a “blue-chip art collection”) might divorce during an economic expansion, is a strange and elitist complaint.
Economic growth benefits everyone (married and unmarried), and recessions cause financial harm.
