The US Has Already Had a Lost Decade

Michael Mandel (h/t to Mark Thoma) writes:

Over the past ten years, the S&P 500 is down 50% adjusted for inflation (February 17, 1999 to February 17, 2009). By my calculation, the stock market was down roughly 50%, adjusted for inflation, in the worst ten years of the Great Depression (September 1929 to September 1939).

When you add in the fact that real wages were stagnant over the past ten years and debt soared, I think we will look back at the last ten years as a decade of despair. As an optimist, I'm going to bet on the next ten years as being better. Any takers?

It may take a while to fully deconstruct just how bad the Bush years were, but this is probably an accurate prognosis - pretty bad. Notably, NDN has been making the case about stagnating wages as part of the Bush economic record for years now. Two lost decades in a row would be nothing short of a disaster. Let's hope Mandel's hope isn't misplaced.