Why the Great Recession continues

David Leonhardt over at the New York Times has an informative piece (see here) about the "un-recovery" from the Great Recession.  As I have stated before, Washington continues the game of "debt limit" chicken while the nation continues to struggle to recover from the recession.  Mr. Leonhardt has a very instructive graph (see below, click to enlarge) that shows some historical data on discretionary spending by consumers.

In my opinion he is correct to focus on the recent data on consumer spending.  Falling consumer spending is both the real culprit and the one that isn't getting much attention from policy makers.  He says:

But the real culprit — or at least the main one — has been hiding in plain sight. We are living through a tremendous bust. It isn’t simply a housing bust. It’s a fizzling of the great consumer bubble that was decades in the making. 

 He points out what Washington should be doing with the debt debate that it isn't.  The article is worth reading.