Recent Employment/Unemployment History of the USA

There are peaks of unemployment associated with Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, all Republicans, and decreases in unemployment rates over for Clinton and (so far) Obama. The long term reduction of unemployment rates during the Carter administration was interrupted by the oil shock at the end of his term, but generally Democrats have been associated with lower unemployment.

I think we are in a precarious situation, and if the United States' and European governments do not take effective action, we might go into a depression. It is unfortunate that there is already distrust of the U.S. Congress as not having the guts and will to do the right thing, as well as doubting that the Congress could find a route to fight the current recession and also reduce the debt to GDP ratio over the next decade or so by cutting the growth of spending, growing the economy, and allowing modest inflation. I hear that there are already Democratic legislators who are thinking of abandoning the Obama jobs bill, which is putting something against the needs of the nation while deserting their leader in times of difficulty.