patrick.net

we sold ourselves down the river a long time ago, yes.

that genial oily half-senile mofo.

Clinton and his neoliberal coterie, too.

I don't blame Obama too much, he was dealt a really shitty hand in 2009 and wasn't equipped too well to deal with it.

He basically got rolled repeatedly by the GOP 2009-2011. I couldn't have done any better had I been elected in 2008.

To get the people on your side you've got to be an greasy lying salesman, like Reagan, like Clinton, like Nixon, like LBJ.

Honesty and sincerity will see you ground down into powder, like Carter.

Even Truman ran into the limits of the office in the 1950s.

when I made this graph:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=uwA

earlier this month a lot became clearer to me.

red line is the happy time we had at 'full' employment in 1999.

blue is actual jobs.

the bubble recovery of the previous decade was only growth to bring in the added working-age population and when that failed we were 17 MILLION jobs short.

We've managed to close the gap to 12 million now, but it's all so precarious I suspect, dependent on further Fed good graces.

Bubbabear says

When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes.

That reminds me of King Philippe IV Le Bel.

He owed a lot of money to the Templars order.

Well... long story short: the Templars were burnt at the stake.

Kill the bankers!

Yes, I would say the last period of real growth was 1990 to 2000.

The recession really started in 2000 with the stock market bubble bursting and the effects of globalization and automation starting to impact American middle class jobs. Add in 9/11 and the government spending spree, and it explains a lot. Bill Clinton did uncannily have great timing. He was elected right when the economy was recovering and left office right before the stock market collapse.

What kept the economy afloat from 2001 to 2008 was government spending (i.e., 2 Wars, etc.) financed by foreign bond investors, as well as Federal Reserve monetary policies.

And consider the S&P 500 is up only about 20% from its peak 14 years ago. So the stock market only has appreciated about 1.5% annually from 2000 to 2014 ! And then compare that to government reported annual inflation of around 2%, and not even the S&P 500 can keep up with inflation !

The big question is how long can we continue with stagnant growth. It has been 14 years, and I would say we are in a long-term or secular bear market since 2000. I agree that the ongoing slump is 14 years old. I think it took the USA economy about 23 years to really shake out of the Great Depression.

adarmiento says

What kept the economy afloat from 2001 to 2008 was government spending (i.e., 2 Wars, etc.) financed by foreign bond investors, as well as Federal Reserve monetary policies.

and consumers borrowing $6T and spending it.

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CMDEBT

Shouldn't we be blaming terrorism - 911 was in 2,000.