the zero decade

12-21-09—Since the end of 1999, US Stocks’ performance has been the all-time clunker. Even 1930s beat it. (1930s -0.2%, 2000s, 0.5%)—WSJ C1

--The political scientist Barbara Sinclair has done the math. In the 1960s, she finds, “extended-debate-related problems” — threatened or actual filibusters — affected only 8 percent of major legislation. By the 1980s, that had risen to 27 percent. But after Democrats retook control of Congress in 2006 and Republicans found themselves in the minority, it soared to 70 percent.—Krugman, NYT A29