Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Every decade gets a nickname, for good or ill. The cleverest suggestion I've seen for the recently ended one is The Naughties, but I doubt it catches on.

"I'm afraid that the past 10 years will be seen as a time when the United States badly lost its way by using our military power carelessly, misunderstanding the real challenges to our long-term security, and pursuing domestic policies that constrained our options for the future while needlessly threatening our prosperity.

I am aware that the previous paragraph is thoroughly controversial, and that befits any description of a politically consequential decade. Much of the contention surrounding Barack Obama's presidency is simply a continuation of our argument over the effects of George W. Bush's time in office.

That is why Obama, despite his fervent wishes, has been unable to usher in a new period of consensus. Bush's defenders know that Obama's election represented a popular reaction against the consequences of the 43rd president's time in office. Because Obama is both the anti-Bush and the leader of the post-Bush cleanup squad, his success would complete the rebuke. So the Bush camp -- Karl Rove's regular contributions to The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages are emblematic -- must stay on the attack."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/31/fighting_over_the_squandered_decade_99736.html

I think it was Suetonius who argued that Tiberias engineered the succession of Caligula so that he, Tiberias, would look good in comparison. Kinda makes you think, doesn't it.

[ontheway]

[Olivencia]

The decade where we see the CEO's pensions fly through the roof while we continue "bailing out" their corporations.

Check this out and realize the absurdity when people say that raising the minimum wage is just so unfair. Get real.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/07/ceo-pensions-whitacre-lead-manage-cx_mk_0503pensions.html

[visitorq]

[caniff]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[kangnamdragun]

The decade has not finished yet. The decade is actually 2001-2010.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[kangnamdragun]

[mises]

If you owned gold and sliver, the decade was pretty good. They were the best performing assets.

http://www.tradersnarrative.com/gold-outshines-all-other-assets-for-past-decade-3388.html

[Marc Ravalomanana]

[Gopher]

I saw the Madmen producers discuss their show once, while killing time. They talked about its beginning in 1960, which they said was the last year of the 1950s, like ten is the last number in the sequence from one to ten, etc.

I think this is a thing that could go either way, depending on where one wants to make it go.

[visitorq]

[Pluto]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Is the quibbling about when decades begin and end over?

***

Here's a couple of devastating graphs that illustrate one aspect of why the decade can be called 'lost' or 'squandered':

Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers

"The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.

It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism -- there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196_2.html

The thing that jumps out is that the 80's and 90's as well as the 00's, all decades noted for deregulation, tax cuts and trickle down theory, were the lowest performing decades. Hmmm.

Joe Scarborough: The Decade Ahead: From Radicalism to Restraint

"Washington just turned the page on a decade filled with reckless spending, military adventurism and political fratricide. The costs of that era will be with us for some time...

"America can no longer afford to be the world's policeman. Instead, we should only go to war as a last resort and then follow the strategy laid out by Colin Powell before the first Iraq War: "We will find the enemy, we will cut off the enemy, we will kill the enemy and we will come home."

"The Bush Era gave us record deficits and debts because its leaders decided they could have it all. History proved them to be wrong...

"Unfortunately, there will always be party hacks and political extremists on both sides. But my belief is in this new decade, there will be a growing majority of Americans who will rise to the challenges that face us over the next decade and punish politicians who engage in nasty political campaigns."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-scarborough/the-decade-ahead-from-rad_b_409178.html

I don't really buy that last part, at least we haven't been seeing any of it in the year just finished. Maybe things will change.