I alluded to this briefly yesterday, but it deserves a post of its own. As he trampled the economy for eight years, George Bush left some pretty messy footprints.

The Washington Post‘s Neil Irwin compares the economy in the 2000s to previous decades, and concludes that “according to a wide range of data,” the last ten years constitute “the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times”. Specifically:

“There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent.”

“Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s.” In the 2000s, real GDP grew 17.8%; the next lowest was 34.9% for the 1980s.

“Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009.” This is the only decade with a fall in median household income “since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.”

“And the net worth of American households — the value of their houses, retirement funds and other assets minus debts — has also declined when adjusted for inflation, compared with sharp gains in every previous decade since data were initially collected in the 1950s.” Real net worth declined 4% in the 2000s; the worst decade before this was the 1970s, with a 28% increase.

Irwin says that this was a disastrous decade that has led “economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation’s growth.” Republicans, of course, are not rethinking anything. I guess that’s still an accurate comment, though, since it’s hard to argue that Republicans qualify as policymakers anymore.