Economically, the 2010s were a slow-motion tragedy—a needlessly wasted decade during which bad policy decisions and cynical politics condemned millions to unnecessary joblessness and hardship. From the White House to Congress to the Fed, there were failures in every corner of the government that combined to turn a crisis into a lingering ordeal.
It began in the catastrophic aftermath of the Great Recession. Depending on which economic indicator you look at, the country’s recovery from that disaster was either slow or extremely slow. The official unemployment rate only returned to its pre-crisis level in 2017. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 with a job, which many economists now believe is a better barometer for the labor market, only completed its rebound this past October, almost a full 10 years after bottoming out.
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