January 23, 2012
Robert Samuelson tried to explain the Fed’s failure to recognize that the collapse of the housing bubble, which had been driving the economy in the last cycle, would lead to a serious downturn. He blamed it on complacency that resulted from the relatively stable growth of the prior quarter century. He compared this to the complacency following the 60s boom that led to the 70s inflation.
The comparison is more than a bit off. In the four years since this downturn began, GDP growth has averaged less than 0.2 percent. (This assumes 3.0 percent growth for the fourth quarter of 2011.) By contrast, growth averaged 3.5 percent from the business cycle peak in 1970 to the peak in 1980. Even if the timing is adjusted to have the 70s end with the trough of the 1982 recession, average growth over this period would still average 2.6 percent. Growth would have to far exceed projections in order to produce a comparable record following the 2008 crash.
It is also important to note that the financial crisis has little direct relevance to the current weakness of the economy. The problem is simply that there is nothing to replace the demand generated by the housing bubble. Consumption is actually unusually high relative to income and investment in equipment and software is back to its pre-recession share of GDP.
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