Tufte’s Short Post # 2: The second half of the recession was particularly steep

The second half of the recession was particularly steep. We haven’t seen a nosedive like fall 2008 since 1957-8 or the Fed/Carter mini-recession in 1980. That one was caused by policy blunders that were easily undone, this recession was not. Again, perhaps we lack perspective on how lousy things can be.

There’s an arthouse film called Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. You’re getting Twenty-Six Short Posts from Dr. Tufte. :) These are on why it’s difficult to understand the current macroeconomic situation. Joe Baker is not a macroeconomist, but we all do a little bit of everything at SUU, so he has to teach principles of macroeconomics sometimes. The other day he asked for pointers about summing up for his students why we can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with the economy. I came up with 26 reasons, most of which have been discussed in class, and all of which are now required.