According to that definition the Great Depression ended sometime in late 1934.

One often overlooked element of our weak economy and poor prospects is the enormous loss of manufacturing base.  Even if massive spending on infrastructure suddenly occurred there are fewer good permanent jobs available.  There's nowhere to go.  Adequate spending would help for awhile but the long term prospects are bleak.  The number to watch if spending were adequate would be the increase of the balance of trade deficit.

Raise your hands, anybody who's surprised....

Here's Aravosis - he seems like he's finally gettign a divorce...

There's no one who gets any say who's arguing for a true Democratic position, which should be: clean debt ceiling bill, with no spending cuts and no mother-freakin' "commission" designed to do an end run around a real small-d democratic process, because - wait for it - that is not how we grow the economy and increase demand and spur hiring.

WHERE ARE THOSE VOICES?

Sorry for yelling, but there's no ideological tension that would put divergent ideas on the table, with history as a guide, to demonstrate with super-HD clarity what needs to be done.

And why is that?

Because Obama has been speaking and spouting  Republican nonsense from his bully pulpit for months on end, with almost no pushback from within the Democratic caucus, and in the face of a moribund economy that is already at near-zero growth.  We have had no discussion about whether we should cut, only discussion about what we should cut and by how much.

The fix, as they say, has been in for a long time, and whether Boehner does or doesn't get his bill, whether he does or doesn't look like he could be easily picked off by the oh-so-odious Eric Cantor, the only thing that really matters is that the economy is going to end up going in the wrong direction - and just as in the past, most Republicans won't vote for the final bill, so they will be positioned to absolve themselves of blame for the inevitable ugliness that's coming.

In any event, you can cherry pick your data to say just about anything.  Link to actual state data.

"Over the month, 16 states recorded statistically significant changes in employment.
The four states reporting the largest over-the-month statistically significant job
gains were Texas (+32,000), California (+28,800), Michigan (+18,000), and
Minnesota (+13,200). Over-the-month statistically significant declines
in employment occurred in Tennessee (-16,900), Missouri (-15,700), Virginia
(-14,600), and Kansas (-7,500).

Over the year, 18 states experienced statistically significant changes in
employment, all of which were increases. The largest increase occurred in Texas
(+220,000), followed by California (+157,000), Ohio (+72,400), and Illinois
(+59,000). (See table D.)"

So sure, under some metrics, the red states are better-performing states.  And under other metrics, they are the worst-performing states.  In any event, considering that republicans have well over half the governerships in the country, it's no surprise that some of the better performing states are going to be red states, and some of the worst.   And then there is this stat:

"The West had the highest regional unemployment rate in June, 10.4 percent,
while the Northeast had the lowest rate, 8.1 percent."