That's what Paul Krugman has come up with as the label for this past decade. Not the aughties, not the naughties, just a big zero. Lots of boasting but no gains. Certainly not economically.
No new jobs, and "private-sector employment has actually declined — the first decade on record in which that happened."
Median household income? Zero minus. "Even at the height of the alleged 'Bush boom,' in 2007, median household income adjusted for inflation was lower than it had been in 1999. And you know what happened next."
No gains in housing prices. "...Right now housing prices, adjusted for inflation, are roughly back to where they were at the beginning of the decade." Leaving millions stranded with no value in their homes and huge debt.
How about investments? Retirement account? Stock market? Back to where it was in '99.
How about the prosperity myths of the past decade?
Here’s what Mr. Summers — and, to be fair, just about everyone in a policy-making position at the time — believed in 1999: America has honest corporate accounting; this lets investors make good decisions, and also forces management to behave responsibly; and the result is a stable, well-functioning financial system. What percentage of all this turned out to be true? Zero.
But hey, the zeroes aren't over yet. The problems of the first decade are seeping into the second decade.
Even now, it’s hard to get Democrats, President Obama included, to deliver a full-throated critique of the practices that got us into the mess we’re in. And as for the Republicans: now that their policies of tax cuts and deregulation have led us into an economic quagmire, their prescription for recovery is — tax cuts and deregulation.
So let’s bid a not at all fond farewell to the Big Zero — the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing. Will the next decade be better? Stay tuned. Oh, and happy New Year.
Let's not forget what we're still paying out on Decade One. Not domestic spending: not much-needed spending on education, environmental rehab, infrastructure, health. No, we're still shelling out for two wars of choice and the men and materiel to operate from huge and costly bases in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and all over the world. Over 760 of them.
We're still on the hook for a hugely reorganized and growing "homeland security" structure which occupies large buildings and relies on mammoth, intrusive computer systems and remote control killing machines.
Prosperity and security returning anytime soon? Any bets?
