Ken Nelson

Greg Mankiw has an interesting set of posts on how to judge this economic downturn.

The first, places where we are now third – after the Depression and the post WWII contraction of the hyperinflated war time economy:

The second, realizing the real GNP was not measured before 1937 instead looks at employment.  This leads to bouncing around of the early 80’s and today, but the kicker, making the early 80’s look worse was the statistic for married, spouse present unemployment (the theory being this is the most stable employment demographic):

And thus placing the current one 4th behind a combined 1981 and 1983/4 recession.

So, am I lucky or what, I’ve been through #2 and #3 from both estimates.

My concern is that this one was caused by symptoms of something even bigger coming.