Three years have lapsed since the official end of the Great Recession: two years since Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner boasted, “Welcome to the recovery;” a year-and-a-half since President Obama said, “The next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive;” and less than a week since the president assured America that “[t]he private sector is doing fine.” 

Yet for all the rhetoric, the economic fact remains: Americans are mired in the worst recovery that the United States has ever recorded. 

Employment, income, and economic growth continue to underperform past recoveries, while the Eurozone’s ongoing debt crisis has only increased the risk of a double dip recession in the United States.  The American economy is decidedly not “doing fine.”

This report is an update to a similar report issued one year ago comparing current economic data and trends—including employment; real gross domestic product (GDP) growth; real consumer spending and credit; housing; and real personal income—with those from previous recessions and recoveries. The report finds that economic conditions are worse today than at the same point in any recovery since World War II.  

 

See entire report in pdf format below: