With today’s disappointing GDP release for the second quarter and downward revisions for the previous two quarters, the U.S. economy completes 7 years of economic expansion with a whimper. And with an average annual growth rate of only 2.1 percent over the 28 quarters from 2009Q3 to 2016Q2, the economic expansion is more aptly called economic exasperation.  I have been pointing to poor government economic policy as the main reason for this poor performance from the start, explaining the defects with each alternative explanation as it has arisen over time, including “it’s not so weak” and then “weak recoveries just happen after deep recessions” and then “it’s just secular stagnation.”  People’s exasperation about the economy and Washington policy is seen in this presidential election season.  The slow economic recovery is a tragedy for many people, especially when you combine it with the great recession that went before it. Policy must change. You would think that reports of three more quarters of disappointing growth would spur people into action.

Here is an update of a graph I have been using to compare the exasperation period with the much stronger expansion period of the 1980s:

and an updated list of links to posts on this subject on EconomicsOne.com which also include pro-growth policy reforms.

• Economic Exasperation, April 8, 2016
• Can We Restart This Recovery All Over Again? September 12, 2015,
• Growth Accounting for a Liberated Recovery, June 22, 2015,
• Liberate the Recovery March 4, 2015
• A Review of Recoveries in Contrast February 15, 2015
• The American Economy: Turtle or Caged Eagle? August 1, 2014
• Why Still No Real Jobs Takeoff? March 7, 2014
• First Principles Versus Secular Stagnation January 31, 2014
• With Better Policy, the Recovery Could Have Been V-Shaped September 16, 2013
• Detecting the Source of Our Recent Poor Economic Performance September 3, 2013
• What to Call This Very Slow Recovery? August 12, 2013
• Crawling Along August 3, 2013
• Policy Uncertainty Makes Firms Reluctant to Hire: New Evidence July 31, 2013
• It’s Not Whether, It’s Why Recovery Has Been So Weak July 8, 2013
• Don’t Blame Weak Recovery on State and Local Spending Cuts June 15, 2013
• Job Growth–Barely Keeping Pace with Population June 10, 2013
• Ed Leamer on the Weak Recovery June 3, 2013
• Same Old Slow Recovery February 4, 2013
• A Slow and Declining Growth Rate Delays Prosperity November 1, 2012
• An Unusually Weak Recovery as Usually Defined October 26, 2012
• Weak Recovery Denial October 18, 2012
• More on the Unusually Weak Recovery October 15, 2012
• Simple Proof That Strong Growth Has Typically Followed Financial Crises October 11, 2012
• From Economic Scare Stories to the Other Side of Reality October 8, 2012
• Government Policies and the Delayed Economic Recovery August 29, 2012
• It’s Still a Recovery in Name Only–A Real Tragedy August 4, 2012
• More Evidence on What Is Holding the Economy Back May 13, 2012
• Debate and Evidence on the Weak Recovery May 2, 2012
• Reassessing the Recovery February 6, 2012
• The Two Year Anniversary of the Non-Recovery June 22, 2011
• Government Policy and the Slowdown July 20, 2010