
The Cost of Kidding Yourself - Cbasedlifeform
http://acrossthestreetnet.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/the-cost-of-kidding-yourself/
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Cbasedlifeform
Well this sounds kinda scary:

 _Total U.S. GDP growth in the 20th century was $9.93 Trillion, while the
government accumulated $5.5 Trillion in debt. In the 21st century, the US has
borrowed $10.7T and has a grand total of $5.30T in GDP growth._

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drewrv
It sounds scary, but it's misleading. Comparing a century with 12 years is
meaningless.

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djoldman
_The US has been in recession 9 of the last 10 years._

This is not true as recession is defined by the NBER. If the author means to
imply that we should change our definition of recession: I don't believe he
produces a convincing argument that (US GDP) / (World GDP) is more indicative
of a protracted economic slump than our current definition. When this ratio is
declining for a particular nation, it simply means that the worlds economy is
becoming relatively larger.

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drewrv
(US GDP) / (World GDP) is only interesting if the world economy is a zero sum
game, which it isn't.

I for one am happy that people in developing nations are doing better.

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_pra
First chart's huge dropoff is an artifact of choosing a yrange of 21-41
instead of 0-100. It's a common deficit of charts created under motivated
cognition.

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001sky
This comment misses the mark. The chart shows 9/10 down periods in a row. Its
the time-series consistency that is the point. viz, the only bold in the inro
para:

 _The US has been in recession 9 of the last 10 years._

The consistent decline is the story (at least as the author is telling it).
The slope is not up and to the right, just the opposite. The concern you raise
about the labeling of the Y axis is noted, but hardly a concern for anyone
paying attention.

