Yearning for the Good Old Days

That is, the good old days before 2007, when the Democrats took control of Congress. A Goy and His Blog has pulled together a remarkable set of graphs documenting the economic progress that was being made before the Democrats took over in Washington, and the disaster that we have witnessed since. It isn’t entirely their fault, to be fair. But most of it is.
When the Republicans were in charge, disposable income was rising; click to enlarge:
PerCapitaIncome-00-07.jpg
Employment was rising:
Employment-00-10.jpg
Then, of course, we have the unemployment rate, rising much faster than Obama’s economic team predicted, well beyond the rate that the farcical “stimulus” bill was supposed to avert:
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Check out the site; there is much more. (Via InstaPundit.)
Meanwhile, the bond market is beginning to rebel at the Democrats’ fiscal insanity. Michael Barone asks: what do Berkshire Hathaway, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s have in common? Answer: they are all better credit risks than the federal government, and therefore can borrow at lower rates. Obamacare is a big part of the reason:

The bill will not lower deficits, but will raise them by $562 billion over 10 years. Treasury will have to borrow that money — and probably pay much higher interest than it’s paying now.
Moreover, once the bill is fully in effect, the Cato Institute’s Alan Reynolds points out, its expenses are likely to grow at least 7 percent a year — significantly faster than revenues. At that rate, spending doubles every 10 years.
No wonder that Moody’s declared last week that the Treasury is “substantially” closer to losing its AAA bond rating.

The bond market doesn’t trust the Obama administration, to put it mildly:

A long period of stability for the US government bond market showed signs of cracking this week as a lack of investor appetite for new debt sent the benchmark 10-year yield to its highest level since last June.
For more than a year, analysts have been warning that record sized debt sales by the US Treasury were at odds with a 10-year yield sitting comfortably below 4 per cent. This week, the yield on 10-year notes jumped from 3.65 per cent to a peak of 3.92 per cent on Thursday. On Friday it was 3.87 per cent. …
The fact that German Bunds have outperformed both Treasuries and gilts in recent months highlights this increasing worry over public debt. Germany’s budget deficit is much lower than the US and UK and inflation there is also expected to remain low. …
It hasn’t helped that the US announced a big overhaul of its healthcare system this month, adding to worries about the scale of US spending.

It is amazing how much damage the Democrats have been able to do in only three years in power.
PAUL adds: I’m skeptical of any suggestion that the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2007 had much to do with the economic downturn of 2008 depicted in the graphs and charts above. I agree that this takeover, coupled with the more important capture of the White House in 2009, has hurt the economy and will do so going forward, probably profoundly.

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