Saturday, May 7, 2011

Lost Decade

The following figure shows the effect of the George Bush administration and the lost decade he leaves as his legacy for the American people. Employment in 2011 is roughly the same as it was in 2000 despite the growth of the population:

Click to Enlarge

Some will ask "But why hasn't Obama corrected this and grown the economy and employement?" Well there are two reasons (1) the Republican opposition forces the Democrats to have a "super-majority" to get any meaningful legislation passed and (2) Obama is a centrist and not a traditional Democrat with concerns for the working class.

What I find amazing is that the media never discusses this "legacy" of the Bush years. They never pin a thing on him. During office he got a pass from criticism and now out of office he continues to get a pass. Meanwhile, Obama has to put up with a media that questions his birth certificate, that assures people he is a socialist and that he is a Muslim. Obama has to put up with a Congressman shouting "you lie!" during a State of the Union speech. He doesn't get a pass. Why?

The following video is a discussion of the economy & stock market by Barry Ritholtz, a solid guy. He says sensible things. This is worth looking at if you want to understand today in a broader context. This starts with the end of the first week of May sell-off in commodities:



At 8:20 into the video they talk about the jobs chart at the top of this post.

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