The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has released important research about the economy in the past few weeks. Here's a look at some of the key pieces it uncovered about the U.S. economy.

Today’s U.S. Census Bureau figures provide further evidence that America’s working families have experienced a “lost decade” of falling incomes from 2000 to 2012.

• From 2000 to 2012, median income for non-elderly households fell $7,490, or 11.6%.
• Median income for African American households fell $5,838, or 14.8%.
• Median income for Hispanic households fell $5,219, or 11.8%.
• From 1973 to 2012, median earnings for men working full-time fell from $51,668 to $49,398.

The latest post in the Workonomics series at Upworthy asks the question, "How Did We Get to a Point Where a Child Is Saying Sorry to Her Mom for Costing Her Money?" The video is an excerpt from the HBO documentary "American Winter," which follows eight families struggling in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This clip shows how income inequality and cuts to social services have real consequences for families.

Today at the Trans-Atlantic Agenda for Shared Prosperity conference held at the AFL-CIO, Janet Yellen, vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, talked about the reasons why the recent economic downturn has been painful particularly for America's workers and what the Federal Reserve's role is in reaching maximum employment.The problem with the economy is the lack of demand and current fiscal policy is not helping. Yellen said the Federal Reserve is committed to action that will create jobs and produce economic growth. 

This is the second of a four-part series describing what went wrong with America’s economy and how to fix it. See Part 3 tomorrow and read Part 1: "Tell Us What You Think: What’s Wrong With the U.S. Economy? The Real Scoop"—and please leave a comment to tell us what you think. (Click the chart to enlarge.)

If the short answer is “we’re still recovering from the Crash of 2008,” the long answer is “there was obviously something wrong with the economy long before the Crash of 2008.” 

There were obvious warning signs during the Bush years that should have set off alarm bells.  Most importantly, wages and middle-class family incomes were dead in the water.  The median income for working-age families started falling in 2000 and never recovered during the 2001-2007 recovery.

This is the first of a four-part series describing what went wrong with America’s economy and how to fix it. See Part 2 tomorrow—and please leave a comment to tell us what you think. (Click the chart to enlarge.)

The Great Recession officially ended more than three years ago, but working families know there’s still something wrong with the U.S. economy.  If we want to fix our economy, we first have to understand what’s wrong with it. (Click chart on the left to enlarge). 

Starting today, in a series of four posts and infographics, we’ll spell out what we see as the short-term and long-term causes of our economic problems and we’ll point to specific solutions.