Why America's middle class is losing ground

When Debbie Bruister buys a gallon of milk at her local Kroger supermarket, she pays $3.69, up 70 cents from what she paid last year.

Getting to the store costs more, too. Gas in Corinth, Miss., her hometown, costs $3.51 a gallon now, compared to less than three bucks in 2012. That really hurts, considering her husband's 112-mile daily round-trip commute to his job as a pharmacist.

Bruister, a mother of four, received a $1,160 raise this school year at her job as an eighth-grade computer teacher. The extra cash -- about $97 a month, before taxes and other deductions -- isn't enough for her and her husband to keep up with their rising costs, especially after the elimination of the payroll tax break. Its loss shrunk their paychecks by more than $270 a month.

"If you look at how much prices are going up, you get in the hole really quick," Bruister said. "It's a constant squeeze."

In the wake of the Great Recession, millions of middle-class people are being pinched by stagnating incomes and the increased cost of living. America's median household income has dropped by more than $4,000 since 2000, after adjusting for inflation, and the typical trappings of middle-class life are slipping out of financial reach for many families. Read more >>

Get Ready To Pay Surcharge Every Time You Pay With Credit Card

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Visa and MasterCard know there is nothing that American consumers love more than fees and surcharges. That’s why the credit card companies are reportedly looking to do away with longstanding rules that prohibit merchants from adding on extra costs to customers who pay with credit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, it’s about time for the credit card networks and card issuers to settle lawsuits involving the swipe fees charged to merchants. As part of this settlement, which involves more than 50 suits filed during the last seven years, it’s possible that merchants will be allowed to tack on surcharges for customers who want to pay with plastic.

The plaintiffs — which include grocery biggies like Kroger and Safeway — allege that credit card providers have long conspired to collude on swipe fees, effectively removing any competition from the market and squeezing exorbitant fees from merchants, which they have then been forbidden from passing on to customers.

In 2011, the hotly debated Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation attempted to severely limit the swipe fees banks charged merchants for debit card transactions. In the end, the average fee was cut in half, but the amendment did not affect credit card transactions. Read more >>