Jan

Who Remembers George Santayana Anyway?

Or Reagan, Bush (I & II), Clinton, Heritage, Cato, Hudson, Manhattan, and Grammâ€“Leachâ€“Bliley, for that matter?

From this morning’s Washington Post:

The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation’s growth.

It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism — there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

That pretty much sums it up. Nothing that WNC can’t solve by building a few more hotels and McMansions. That’s worked out pretty well so far, hasn’t it?

Categories : Economy, History, Local, National, Parties, Recession, Sustainability

4 Comments

Tom Sullivan
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:46 pm

Joesph Stiglitz reminds China Daily readers of mistakes made in the last decade that we would do well to learn from or else “we may find ourselves faced with another opportunity to learn them.”

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karen cragnolin
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:57 pm

First thanks so much for adding our logo. This article was fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Karen

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writ of summons
January 3rd, 2010 at 6:23 am

“The lover of the countryside who wants above all that its traditional appearance should be preserved and that the blots already made by industry on its fair face should be removed, no less than the health enthusiast who wants all the picturesque but unsanitary old cottages cleared away, or the motorist who wishes the country cut up by big motor roads, the efficiency fanatic who desires maximum of specialization and mechanization no less than the idealist who for the development of personality wants to preserve as many craftsmen as possible, all know that their aim can be fully achieved only by planning—and they all want planning for that reason. … From the saintly and single-minded idealist to the fanatic is often but a step. Though it is in the resentment of the frustrated specialist which gives the demand for planning its strongest impetus, there could hardly be a more unbearable—and more irrational—world than one in which the most eminent specialist in each field were allowed to proceed unchecked with the realization of their ideals.”
-F.A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom

Add to this list the Neoclassical economist.

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Tom Sullivan
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:26 am

And Russell Kirk (when he wasn’t romancing some space babe).

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