Why can't we escape the recession curse? We have a partial answer.

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Year	GDP - real growth rate	Rank	Percent Change	Date of Information
2003	2.45 %	115		2002 est.
2004	3.10 %	104	26.53 %	2003 est.
2005	4.40 %	100	41.94 %	2004 est.
2006	3.20 %	138	-27.27 %	2005 est.
2007	3.20 %	152	0.00 %	2006 est.
2008	2.00 %	186	-37.50 %	2007 est.
2009	1.10 %	171	-45.00 %	2008 est.
2010	-2.60 %	159	-336.36 %	2009 est.

After all the games have been played, after all the rules have been broken, after all the lies have been told, our real GDP growth rate for 2009, the first year of Obama's Stimulus bill, was a discouraging 1% over the year before. In 2010, things actually got worse with a GDP growth rate losing ground (a minus 2.6%) compared to 2009 (Source: Growth Index).

Want to know why we record 410,000 to 430,000 newly unemployed each and every week for two years? The answer is reflected in our GDP numbers. Understand that "real GDP" is a macroeconomic measure of the size of an economy adjusted for price changes (that is, adjusted for changes in the value of money: inflation or deflation and other variables. Government reporting of GDP is seldom "real GDP." Without adjusting for the value of our dollar, for example, GDP from quarter to quarter might indicate a growth of, say, 2% in the same period of time the dollar lost 3% of its value. Obviously, Our GDP growth rate would be a minus 1% if no other factors were considered.

A real GDP of 3% would present a growing economy, one that is adding jobs faster than it is losing jobs. That is not the case, at this time, despite reports of 2.5 or 3 percent before necessary adjustments are made. "Smoke and mirrors" is the name of this tune, played by the Obama Administration.