[MI] Crashes and severe recessions often are followed by bursts of innovation and a boom. Not this time. And the Fed's policies deserve much of the blame.Many negative consequences flow reliably from a financial crisis, including unemployment, political turmoil, and piles of sovereign debt. Since the 2008 financial meltdown, however, we've seen none of the good consequences ‐ and there are supposed to be good ones.
Crashes and severe recessions often are followed by bursts of innovation that lay the groundwork for several decades of future growth and productivity increases. Severe economic downturns can perform a vital cleansing for the economy, toppling unchallengeable market positions and clearing a path for newcomers with disruptive ideas. The economic transformations that followed major worldwide crashes prior to 2008 ‐ in 1873, 1929, and 1973‐were breathtaking.
Yet here we are, nearly a decade after the worst financial crisis in modern memory, and we've seen few of these kinds of benefits. Don't let heady stock prices, record corporate profits, and low unemployment fool you. America is only now emerging from a lost decade. Instead of renewal, the last ten years were blighted by slow growth, stagnant productivity, limited social mobility, long-term unemployment and underemployment, and despair.
The economic legacy of the last decade is excessive corporate consolidation, a massive transfer of wealth to the top 1% from the middle class, the creation of even more asset bubbles, and rising social tensions. America is incredibly resilient. We are not Japan. We are recovering.