The USA's Lost Twenty Years

Let's look back at the dying days of the Clinton presidency. 

It is 1999, and we are about to have President Bush, then Obama, then Trump. What did the USA look like then, and what does it look like now?

The Economy: 

1999 - Gross Domestic Product growth in the USA in 1999 was 3.8%, following growth of 4.5% in both 1997 and 1998.  

2019 - Gross Domestic Product growth will be about 1.3% in the second quarter of 2019.  

The USA economy has not grown by more that 3% a year since 2005, in spite of literally trillions of dollars in stimulus funding courtesy of massive government borrowing and spending and historically low interest rates.

The Stock Market: 

1999 - The S&P 500 was at about 1,425 at the end of 1999.  

2019 - The S & P 500 is about 2,800 today.

If you bought the S&P 500 on January 1, 2000, you spent the next 13 years underwater, and did not see any net capital accumulation until 2013. You have only made money in the last 5 - 6 years.

Food Stamps:

1999 - There were about 15 million Americans on Food Stamps in 1999 - about 1 in 20 Americans. If you met 100 "average" Americans at that time, 5 were living on Food Stamps.

2019 - After peaking at about 46 million recipients in 2013, there are still about 39 million Food Stamp recipients in the USA - about 1 in 8.5 Americans. If you were to meet 100 "average" Americans today, 12 of them would be living on Food Stamps.

With a broad unemployment rate of about 7.5% (U6 - total unemployed and underemployed in one year), and a Food Stamps recipient rate of 12% of which about half (6%) are able-bodied people, the real rate of people out of a job in the USA is at least 14%. This is slightly better than the rate of unemployed persons on the dole in America in the better years of The Great Depression.

Debt and Deficits:

1999 - National debt was $5.65 Trillion.

2019 - National debt is about $22.7 Trillion.

The USA will soon have a higher debt to GDP ratio than it had during WW2, which was the peak. There is no actual political will to force the country to live within its means, instead, politicians act as if they think their country can keep relying on the Chinese and the US Fed to finance deficits.  The political class in that country has never more obviously failed in its most basic responsibilities.

Income Distribution:

1999 - The top 1% of income earners had 17% of national income, while the poorest half of the population - the bottom 50% of income earners had just under 16% of national income.

2019 - The top 1% of income earners have over 20% of national income, while the poorest half of the population - the bottom 50% of income earners had approaching 12% of national income.

The USA is a country of the rich, by the poor, for the rich. The present trend cannot continue and that country continue to call itself a democracy.

Where would this country be if it had avoided relentless tax cuts for rich people, it balanced its budgets, and if it had fought fewer wars?

What a waste.