Paul Krugman:The Big Zero

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28krugman.html
Maybe we knew, at some unconscious, instinctive level, that it would be an era best forgotten. Whatever the reason, we got through the first decade of the new millennium without ever agreeing on what to call it. The aughts? The naughties? Whatever. (Yes, I know that strictly speaking the millennium didn’t begin until 2001. Do we really care?)

But from an economic point of view, I’d suggest that we call the decade past the Big Zero. It was a decade in which nothing good happened, and none of the optimistic things we were supposed to believe turned out to be true.

It was a decade with basically zero job creation. O.K., the headline employment number for December 2009 will be slightly higher than that for December 1999, but only slightly. And private-sector employment has actually declined — the first decade on record in which that happened.

It was a decade with zero economic gains for the typical family. Actually, 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.


(snip)
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.

[daleo]

1. Also, The Big Owe (0)

Works for skyrocketing war debt.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. Well done

Sad, too...

[babylonsister]

2. I predict optimistically it will be better. But Krugman is right; a decade

wasted.

[tuvor]

3. Makes me recall Wired Magazine's bizarre 1990s optimism for the 2000s

Anyone remember their last cover of 1999?

[moondust]

6. Indeed, what goes up...

I think the Big Zeros and Beyond are partly a falling back to Earth from the high-flying 90s.

[Romulox]

4. Paul Krugman has always been a neoliberal/globalist cheerleader. Who is he to chastise?

Who is Paul Krugman to chastise anybody without first admitting his own fault? :eyes:

[Oregone]

5. Very different viewpoint:

Ten years that shook, rattled, rolled and helped repair the world
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/decade/decade-news/ten-years-that-shook-rattled-rolled-and-helped-repair-the-world/article1411327/

US news is always centered on the US, and last 10 years there blew. Maybe not the full story

[DLnyc]

7. How 'bout "aught nought's" (for a decade that ought not to have happened)

I think the first decade of the 20th century was often called the "naughty aught's".

Makes sense our first would be the "ought not's"

I guess it's not that funny if you have to explain it.

[depakid]

8. For America maybe, but other nations and their people's progressed and did quite weel

[Javaman]

10. Meh, the next decade doesn't start until Jan 1, 2011. nt