Source: CNN Money
It is the silly political season, and while each side levels accusations at each other, neither wants to admit the simple truth: Both political parties helped to create the credit crisis (In Bailout Nation, I put it about 55/45).
The Obama administration underestimated the depth of the recession, and failed to respond appropriately. Instead, he put two wholly unqualified people into senior positions: Tim Geithner, who failed upwards from the President of the NY Fed to become Treasury Secretary; And Lawrence Summers, who failed upwards, well, for most of his career. When he was Treasury Secretary, he helped pass the ruinous Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, and helped to repeal Glass Steagall. Both were proteges of Robert Rubin.
On the other side, of the political aisle, the Romney camp wants to blow up every negative data point into the world’s worst recovery. (Its not a typical recovery, and even by that standard its not the worst ever).
What we have is a typical post-credit crisis recovery. Sub-par GDP, mediocre jobs recovery.
As the monthly payroll chart at top shows, things have gotten better — just at a pace that is far less rapid than we prefer.
Unless we are willing to pull out all of the stops — huge overseas tax free repatriation plus a massive Keynesian spending surge, we should expect more of the same.
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