Economics Lesson

Via Kevin Drum's Washington Memo, check out the above bar graph by the Economic Policy Institute. It offers a fascinating visual summary of 4th quarter economic data showing growth in the U.S. economy versus the averages in the half-century since World War II.

This is what the notorious Bush tax cuts have brought us:

[T]he current recovery substantially lags the historical average in GDP growth, employment growth, investment in equipment and software, and, with the deflating housing market, even in residential investment.

But corporate profits are nearly three times higher than the historic average. What's that mean?

As a policy lesson, the large tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which have had ample time to affect the economy by now, have failed to deliver economic performance that even matches up to the past average.