Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are fond of asking whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago. And so, as a public service, about week ago I started tweeting links to headlines in the New York Times from exactly four years earlier, all marked with the hashtag #4yearsagotoday. It’s been quite interesting to watch the progression of stories as the situation with the banks went from bad to worse to unbelievably horrible.
Today, September 15, is the big day: 4 years ago today, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and it very nearly took down the entire financial system with it. That event triggered a huge selloff in the stock market, and it was the beginning of an epic economic collapse that resulted, among other things, in millions of Americans losing their jobs at an incredible pace. To refresh your recollection, in September of 2008, the month the really bad stuff began, 432,000 jobs were lost. The next month, 489,000; and the next, a staggering 803,000. And the worst month for job loss was yet to come: in January of 2009, the month President Obama took office, 818,000 jobs would be lost. It would be March of 2010 before we would begin to see monthly net gains; since then, private sector jobs have been added every month. Sometimes not as many as we’d like, but better that than seeing them disappear.
So, are things all fixed? No, they are not. But is the country better off today than it was four years ago? You bet. I’ll keep tweeting the #4yearsagotoday stories for a while – follow along if you’re interested.
kbusch says
Luskin has aspired to become the Anti-Krugman, and, via Brad De Long, I was taken to this annotated version of Mr Luskin’s, er, remarkable column in the Washington Post from exactly four years ago. Titled “Quit Doling Out That Bad-Economy Line”, it is amazingly stupid and Barry Ritholz’ take down is worth reading.
Note: Mr Luskin is now a Romney advisor.
David says
can you confirm that Luskin is a Romney advisor? I can’t find any indication that’s he’s affiliated with the campaign.
kbusch says
but I remember having read it. Now it seems more likely that I did not. Luskin’s recent work includes a rather ridiculous article in the National Review suggesting that making the stock market tank will be good for country because it will get Romney elected. This is not something someone connected with a professional modern campaign would do.
kbusch says
He was a McCain advisor.
methuenprogressive says
While all this was happening, the focus was elsewhere.
Mr. Lynne says
… from Krugman via Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson:
mannygoldstein says
Jasiu says
n/t