Below, Corrections displays the employment patterns from twelve U.S. recessions. The first lines up NBER peaks: these may or may not be employment peaks (click to enlarge). The second lines up employment troughs (click to enlarge). The two are the same data (though the percentages vary because baseline comparison levels vary).
The data indicates what anyone who is unemployed now experiences - the management of this recession has been an disaster. Obama has again demonstrated the lesson of the Great Depression - that if you punish business, raise taxes and indirectly raise other costs (like healthcare with Obamacare), focus the national dialogue on the politics of vilification and envy, try to force unionization, and create an environment where future policies are highly unpredictable investment declines and stagnation continues.
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