Was preparing a more snarky title FT: 'By the way, our metrics sucked'

Here's one reason:

In spite of growth, people were worse off on average, as Stiglitz says:

"Many people looked at US GDP growth in the 2000s and said: `How fast you are growing - we must imitate you.' But it was not sustainable or equitable growth. Even before the crash, most people were worse off than they were in 2000. It was a decade of decline for most Americans."

And of course this was a big part of what caused the crash. Note Jerome's diaries 'The One Graph That Damns the Bush Economy' and 'Blame the Poor'.