A Disastrous Decade
What a difference a decade makes. It was just 10 years ago that:
- Panic was rampant about the Y2K bug;
- The Nasdaq closed at 5,048.62, its highest point before the dot-com bust;
- AOL bought Time Warner for $162 billion;
- Vladimir Putin took charge of Russia;
- Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft’s CEO;
- Elian Gonzalez (who?) was on the front page of every newspaper;
- Vermont approved gay unions; and
- the Bush vs. Gore election was too close to call.
And that’s just the fun stuff. Over the past 10 years:
- Real GDP grew by only 17% after growing by 34-40% during the previous three decades;
- Real federal debt held by the public increased by some 95%, or about $4 trillion;
- Employment stands at about 1.4 million fewer payroll jobs than what existed in 2000; and
- Consumer confidence ended the decade 31% lower than it began.
Click here to read the full NAI Report: “A Disastrous Decade” in PDF format
