The 10 SCARIEST Charts Of The Recession

Over the past year, a number of economists have proclaimed the recession's end. The media, too, have urged economic optimism, particularly in the last few weeks. At the New York Times, Floyd Norris argued that the economy is experiencing "a cyclical recovery that is gaining strength." This week's Newsweek cover story trumpets the valiant recovery of a "comeback country" now roaring ahead in post-recessionary times.

But a closer look reveals a far more muddled picture. In the first quarter of 2010, economic activity fell in half of the U.S. states, the number of national housing foreclosures jumped back near their 2009 peak, and household debt as a percentage of GDP, long-term unemployment, and income inequality are still at or near their historic highs.

Before you get too excited about the recovery, check out these charts from the recession's still lingering impact:

 

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Scariest Charts Of The Recession

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Wall Street Bonuses vs. Normal Pay

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Beginning in the 1990s, Wall Street bonuses began to take off, and were downright astronomical by 2006. And even when Wall-Street bonuses dipped during the financial crisis, they still did not, according to this chart, come anywhere near worker's annual salary.

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Beginning in the 1990s, Wall Street bonuses began to take off, and were downright astronomical by 2006. And even when Wall-Street bonuses dipped during the financial crisis, they still did not, according to this chart, come anywhere near worker's annual salary.

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Scariest Charts Of The Recession

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Comments

[conservo]

02:11 PM on 05/19/2010

But Obama said the recession was over???

[huff-fan]

12:50 PM on 05/10/2010

The economy added 290,000 jobs in April -- more than it has in four years. We've got a long way to go, but it's one more sign that we're moving in the right direction. Check out this chart we put together to show how the Obama administration is turning things around:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/55c105bc/6c53c5ba/9b654287/11887858/3706003894/VEsH/

[elfish]

08:27 PM on 04/29/2010

When Republicans says the Main Stream Media is Liberal, they are l.ying.

Here is why:

1. When the Health Care bill was being considered, about 1500 to 2000 Tea Party protestors showed up on March 10th to protest. It was on all the networks and cable news programs for three days.

2. Today 7,500 to 10,000 show up on Wall Street to protest and it isn't covered on ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS evening news shows.

Some liberal bias. Looks a lot more like the Republican Corporate Master have dictated that the Media will be CONSERVATIVE.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/20/2234578.aspx
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-29/unions-members-march-demand-bankers-fix-the-mess-update1-.html

[Scott Schafer]

06:04 PM on 04/25/2010

Gee, things have clearly gotten SO much better as the taxes on the top earners have dropped over the years. We better not talk about raising their taxes or they might not grant us the jobs that we desperately need. They might even try to avoid paying their taxes or find cheaper labor overseas, those poor oppressed overlords of ours.

All hail the owner class!

[DFL]

03:19 PM on 04/21/2010

Out of a job? out of unemployment insurance and can't get any more help? -thank a republican!

[Iron275]

07:14 AM on 04/22/2010

Spoken like a true Democrat. Instead of SITTING at your computer wasting time whining about why you are not GETTING things handed to you... how about THINKING about your next move...Taking ACTION...and RESPOSIBILITY for your future. Nothing in the Constitution states that you have the RIGHT to receive free stuff. It does state that you have the RIGHT to PURSUE. Pursuing means ACTION on your part.

[drosamiliaf]

12:49 PM on 04/23/2010

Excuse me but it has nothing to do with the constitution, were talking about people who have in some cases paid into the system for 30 years, why arent they entiltled to their
benefits. Where the heck is all that money hard working americans pay into. The money should be there when we need it, and now the politicians are talking about where is the money coming from to fund unemployment extension, I have an answer , how about the money youve been taking out of our checks for years!!!! CROOKS!!!! And government doesnt have to answer to anyone! That should be in the constituion.

[DavidWyld]

08:25 PM on 04/20/2010

All very scary stuff - the income inequality, the long-term unemployment, the lending inactivity - makes you pay attention - except in DC, of course!

David http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/

[Levonsky]

12:06 PM on 04/20/2010

My grandad gave me good advice years ago: stay away from bankers and lawyers and you'll do just fine.

He was right!

[vmlinux]

02:17 PM on 04/29/2010

He was right. Just think, our great grandparents considered debt sinful.

[Linda from Deerfield]

04:39 PM on 05/12/2010

Good of him to pass along his wisdom (probably hard won). My father did respectably well in his business by never borrowing any money! We are led to believe that should not be possible. When my brother-in-law undertook to become a lawyer, my father told him he'll never do well at it because he is too good a person -- he's done fine, but hasn't had that raging monetary success that some lawyers seem to find.

[AyeChart]

09:10 AM on 04/20/2010

Scary charts all right. But why aren't we entering a recovery yet?

In "Field of Dreams," the classic line was "If you build it, they will come." Same applies to businesses, jobs, and recovery.

Obama is not building a playing field conducive to business growth, job growth, and recovery. Indeed, as New Jersey has found out, "If you tax it, they will leave." The people with money to start businesses and the businesses with jobs to offer have, as taxes went up, fled the state.

With the Obama administration, it's trash-talking corporations, threatening taxes and fines, and then they claim to be surprised that the economy isn't picking up and jobs coming back. There should be no surprise. If you attack them, they will hunker down and wait...

[imayes]

03:00 PM on 04/20/2010

I'm sorry, but no amount of "tax cuts" will cause U.S. companies to not use cheap, overseas labor. China is paying employees 50 cents an hour to manufacture electronics products. What taxes would you cut to compete with that? As long as U.S. companies ship jobs overseas to make themselves more money (one of the reasons the top 400, and bonuses can go up) then U.S. job growth will be in jeopardy.

Until we get other countries to play on a level field with regards to globalization we will always have issues with job growth.

[qzulix]

06:20 PM on 04/21/2010

There were over $300 billion dollars in tax cuts for mostly small business in the stinking stimulus and overall tax rates are at Historic lows. The only tax increase actually levied to date has been on cigarettes!! for SCHIP expansion.

The biggest problem facing this country is the belief in negative notions not tied to any real-world fact, and it's pervasive.

Why is the stock market ignoring the prevailing whipped-dog "wisdom" of the supply-siders? I'm serious; what is up with that? What's it riding on?

[vmlinux]

02:18 PM on 04/29/2010

I have a small business, where were my tax cuts? Ohh you mean tax cuts for specific businesses in specific industries that are pet project sectors.

[Rynox]

07:44 AM on 04/20/2010

her name was pauline and she lived in a tree

[InfidelSix]

09:15 PM on 04/22/2010

Don't get the meaning of this Sex Pistols reference.

[socialtalker]

11:08 PM on 04/19/2010

it's getting to the point where i can bare to read the financial news anymore. never thought i would get to that stage. i just seem to be losing my stomach for a lot of things these days...

[Lawdog10]

03:38 PM on 05/04/2010

Likewise. I make an effort to keep my news balanced by reading publications with different ethos: HP, WSJ, NYT and a local paper. I am having a hard time stomaching the WSJ lately.

In the chart above, Income Inequality takes off like rocket right when Reagan took office. Shocker.

[WestcoastSteve]

10:07 PM on 04/19/2010

Well these charts prove one thing: the ultra-rich pissing on the lower classes is the only thing that trickles down in the Trickle Down theory of economics.

[tuberider]

09:30 PM on 04/19/2010

Surely you jest. Americans are reading charts? Has hell frozen over?

[themodernleader]

09:12 PM on 04/19/2010

Family debt at historically high levels, chronic unemployment at historically high levels, inequality at historically high levels, income stagnant as inflation for basic commodities soars: We see a fundamental transistion from a declining middle class population to the few families of concdentrated wealth and power.
We are told that prosperty is right around the corner. How much? for whom? For how long?

[almost homeless]

07:14 PM on 04/19/2010

It's about 100 years that the rich and powerful loot the country so we should be good for another 100.

[Eres]

07:11 PM on 04/19/2010

I just wanted to give Bush & his minions a shout out for their astonishing success in running the country into the ground.

[ivquatch]

07:20 PM on 04/19/2010

... and to Obama's financial goons to continuing the Bush legacy.

[GH]

08:01 PM on 04/19/2010

Well, a closer look at the data - some of it in the charts above - show that most everything was off-kilter long before Bush. Perhaps that's why liberal and progressive economists have continued to write the roots of this crisis were born during the Clinton era. Bush did inherit a mess; an economic crash, every leading economic indicator long in free fall, the immediate end of the short term surpluses (caused by the dot.com crash in March of 2000), 9/11 long in planning, the intafada, millions dying in the DR Congo (another one that Clinton turned his back on), a HIV/Aids pandemic in Africa (UN says Bush saved 2 million lives).

I'll give Bush credit for one thing, however, he was not going to fix the looming economic crisis either - no matter how much Glenn Beck rant and raved about the coming collapse.

[ivquatch]

08:12 PM on 04/19/2010

I think most scholars agree that the roots of this crisis can be traced back to the late seventies when Nixon repealed the gold standard, while the deregulation during the Regan era and the advent of unregulated derivatives in the Clinton era were the major contributors. This is also the period where the income gap began to widen.

[zjin]

09:12 PM on 04/19/2010

The roots of this crisis were closer to 1980 when derivative markets began taking off, not with Clinton. Remember 1980's memes of "greed is good" and "deregulation"? Remember the S&L crisis, LTCM? I get the impression Clinton didn't really understand the threat posed by these unregulated exotic instruments. He was probably doing what the conservative majority wanted.

There was also number-fudging going on since 1980. Changes in the methodology for calculating the CPI in 1980 onward depressed values for inflation. For example using pre-1980 methods for calculating CPI, the recent inflation high in early 2008 of about 5% would have been more like 13%. So from 1982 on, inflation appears to be flat or slightly declining rather than doubling, as it would be using older methods. Given that Jimmy Carter was voted out on inflation, it seems a bit suspicious CPI calculation was changed after that to lower it.

Also in the early 1980s, the calculation of GDP changed in a manner to accentuate its upward growth. Using pre-1982 methods for calculating GDP, the Bush boom in 2004 reports a GDP growth rate of 4%, but by the pre-1982 methods GDP growth rate would have been less than 1%. But even without the cooked reporting, the trend was still there: since Reagan, there has been a slow decline in the growth rate of the GDP.

Number fudging like that undoubtedly gave far more license to Republican politics pointing to the successes of conservative economic theories.