“Can we all just drop the term “recession” and call this the Bush-Obama Depression? “
I don’t blame either. The American people wanted more and better stuff than they could afford so they borrowed it from the future. Now the future is here and all the growth that should be here has already been consumed in the past.
We just have too much debt for a healthy economy and I don’t see how Bush or Obama made anyone borrow it.
“I don’t blame either. The American people wanted more and better stuff than they could afford so they borrowed it from the future.”
Agreed. But TARP (Bush) and QE-(pick a number, Obama) have deepened and lengthened our economic malaise. Those were political decisions that could have been avoided.
We got used to living large during the mainly equity-fueled internet/telecom boom of the Clinton years, and kept it up by borrowing staggering sums of money during the post 9/11 era.
I don’t see how borrowing to pay for a house or those over-priced cars causes the poor job situation. The poor job situation is from the opium of Big Government sucking wealth out of the economy through over regulation. When government gets bigger, it creates more government workers looking for something to justify their employment. What better way than to create more regulations. Then, you can work at enforcing those regulations.