CNN economist schools Trump advisor Stephen Moore: The middle class and most of US are suffering

Former Donald Trump economic advisor Stephen Moore lauded decreasing income inequality in America on CNN -- after the stock markets suffered their worst December since 1931.

CNN anchor Pamela Brown reminded Moore of a Trump tweet from October bragging about the stock market -- something he did repeatedly before the market downturn.

"I remember back then, there was a warning to the president, look, you know, if you're going to take credit for when it's high, you have to take blame for when it's low," Brown recalled. "What do you think?"

Moore admitted the stock market had a "brutal month" in December, but claimed the "big story" was actually the stock market gains in the final week of the month.

Moore said that 2018 was the best year for the American worker in "Probably in 50 years."

"That's the big story of the year," he argued. "I don't understand the negativity. Yeah, the stock market was down, but look, for workers, it was a great, great year and nobody can deny that."

CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar explained the details behind the headline numbers, noting there is a lot of "bifurcation."

"If you look at the top 12 or so cities around the country -- the big coastal cities, the rich areas we know -- are taking most of those gains," she explained. "There are large chunks of the country being left behind."

Foroohar also noted the lack of middle-class job growth.

"There is also a big gap in terms of the types of jobs being created," she explained. "There is a lot of jobs at the very high end, there's a lot of $15 an hour jobs, not enough in the middle."

"The Wall Street Journal had a great piece, about a month ago, that showed that the biggest wage gains have actually been for the people at the bottom," Moore replied. "So we're actually for the first time in a long, long time seeing a shrinking in income equality, because people at the bottom have more flexibility in terms of their job choices."

"Actually, what we need is jobs in the middle," Foroohar argued. "We don't have enough middle class jobs."

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