A Historically Weak U.S. Recovery

The Wall Street Journal editorial page points out that the U.S. recovery has been very feeble compared to the 1983-84 recovery, which came from a similarly deep recession. I myself wrote last year on the subject. Since then, growth numbers have come in somewhat stronger, but even now they are relatively weak considering the circumstances.

The big difference between then and now is that then there were aggressive marginal tax rate reductions, whereas no reductions of that kind has been seen now, and America faces big increases next year as the Bush tax cuts expire, and the tax increases included in the health care bill kicks in.