Here’s a graph at which we should all take a close look. It’s just a few data points bouncing around a chart, but it explains a lot, I think, about why so many people are unsettled by developments in the current economy.

The data are the inflation-adjusted, average weekly earnings of a representative group of workers—those who are non-managers in the service sector and blue-collar workers in manufacturing. So we’re talking about the bottom 80% of workforce.

Adjusting for the growth of prices and looking back of the past few years, their weekly earnings rose significantly in just two months: September and October of last year. Before and since, earnings have been flat (these data leave out fringe benefits, which have also been falling for most workers).

So what was so special about those two months?

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