[ilgipper]

Yes! But, that was thru a creation of a bubble. That's the point, the larger the bubble creation, the more the suffering. As for the job creation, yes, its null and void from bad policy. Just, as the mythic wealth creation, by simply using your house as an atm. The only thing we are creating of late, is debt.

Bubbles are part of the system. Two dollars earned in a bubble is the same as one earned during and one after. This bubble did not start in 2000. Paul is incorrect, and is playing into leftist talking points that somehow things were great until ol' George Bush came along. The housing bubble began long before Bush's inauguration and in fact helped drive the growth of the 90s. In addition, there was an additional tech bubble in the 90s that had the same effect. The bottom line is most everyone was doing just fine until 2007 and to discount nearly full employment for a period of years is simply dishonest. In any one year if we had good GDP growth and low unemployment, chalk it up in the books as a good year for the people of this country. I am not discounting your concerns about the debt problem, and certainly the financial collapse has been very damaging. That said, our situation today would not be nearly so dire if the government wasn't heavy handed in micromanaging the economy. We'd be back on the upswing 2 years ago if the government simply stayed out of it, vowed to keep the tax burden low, and minimized the massive regulatory burden.

[FritzG]

'In addition, there was an additional tech bubble in the 90s that had the same effect. The bottom line is most everyone was doing just fine until 2007 and to discount nearly full employment for a period of years is simply dishonest. '

Sure, there are always bubbles. But, this has been a Gov't sponsored bubble. Without, the natural forces of the market to build and create wealth.

America has been on the decline for years, except people haven't wanted to accept it. Just look at NAFTA, are we better off. The initial claims would be low tech labor would be lost, no biggie. Now white collar jobs are losing out, thus that is part of the reason we are seeing forms of protest.

2007 was just the tip of the bubble, it was an illusion, created through articficial stimulation from the Gov't. A healthy economy wouldn't be growing because of debt, and that is the foundation of our economy. It will end badly.

As you say that we have been micromanaged,, Paul's point is that it has been a collusion of crony capitalism that has create part of this mess. The Gov't took a hands off approach to the use of leverage for banks and they repealed Glass-Steagall, so now they get to have it both ways as a bank.

Throw in that savers are being destroyed, with easy low interest rates, it pushes savers into more risky investments like stocks.