A new research note by JPMorgan shows that since 1970, Japan, Finland, and Sweden suffered through a recession and a financial crisis at the same time, but all three recovered stronger than the United States. As James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute writes:
The Obama administration says one reason the U.S. economic recovery has been so slow is that it is still suffering from the aftermath of the financial crisis. But the U.S. is not the first country to suffer a recession and a financial crisis. And the U.S. recovery is doing worse than all of them.
Pethokoukis also quotes JPMorgan economist, Michael Feroli, on the United States’ recovery compared to Japan’s large and advanced economy:
The poster child for slow growth coming out of a debt-fuelled financial crisis has to be Japan, which ever since the early 1990s has had trouble getting a head of steam. The recession which kicked off Japan’s "lost decade" lasted from 1991 to 1993. Including the recovery experience from that recession is sobering: we are currently faring worse than Japan at the same point in their lost decade.