Scoring the Recovery

Barry Ritholtz nails it in this post from his always excellent The Big Picture Blog by summarizing Reinhart and Rogoff's latest work:


Real Per Capita GDP (levels): 2007-2011 Systemic & Borderline Crises in Advanced Economies



Can't get much clearer evidence than the chart above if one wants to score the current U.S. economic recovery in good faith, i.e. without an ideological/political agenda.

The money quote from the Reinhart/Rogoff's Bloomberg's article:

We have not publicly supported or privately advised either campaign. We well appreciate that during elections, academic economists sometimes become advocates. It is entirely reasonable for a scholar, in that role, to try to argue that a candidate has a better economic program that will benefit the country in the future. But when it comes to assessing U.S. financial history, the license for advocacy becomes more limited, and we have to take issue with gross misinterpretations of the facts.