Now that the “00s” have ended, the sad reality is that it was a lost decade for the American work force.
Statistics show that there was ABSOLUTELY no job growth at all for the entire decade, and that it was the worst decade for the economy since the 1930s, and this is not just from the Great Recession that started in 2008, but over the whole ten year period!
Along with zero net job creation, and middle income households making less in 2008 than in 1999, when inflation is factored into the equation, the net worth of American households also declined, with inflation figures considered.
Mismanagement of the economy reigned in the decade, and indebtedness became a major crisis for many Americans, as too many Americans lived on borrowed money. Therefore, that is a good explanation for the highest unemployment rate in numbers since the 1930s, and the tremendous collapse of the housing market in the past few years.
This decade now ended could also be called the “bubble” decade, since it began with a stock market bubble and ended with a housing and credit bubble, with the present recession far worse than the mild one in the early part of the decade.
The challenge for President Obama’s administration will be how to turn the economy around and bring real job growth sooner, rather than later, not just for the economic health of the nation, but also for the political future of the Democratic Party in Congress and in the state houses.
One thing seems clear: The Republican party cannot blame the economic mess on the Democrats, as they controlled the White House for eight years and the Congress for six years during this tragic decade. The Democrats need to remind voters of this fact, and the reality that the GOP has no solutions on the economy as we enter 2010, except to criticize and downgrade everything Obama promotes or suggests.