I've decided to become an Aughts revisionist: The decade just wasn't that bad. Particularly not worldwide. China and India had explosive economic growth, of course. But Brazil, Indonesia and a lot of other populous, poor countries had growth ranging from steady to good.

Domestically, this is also why it matters if America lets itself get trapped in a Japan-like decade of unnecessarily slow growth. Incremental progress is better than misery, but we underestimate how much worse it is than faster progress. The entire article is here.  From The Washington Post which may require free registration.