I recently received a complimentary copy of Peter Gosselin’s new book, High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families.  Mr. Gosselin is the national economics correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Here is an excerpt from the book jacket:

The recent downturn seems to have brought an end to some of the strongest, smoothest growth in American history–a performance that economists found so sweet they dubbed it the “Great Moderation.” Yet even in boom times, the economy was caught in a cross-current. … [T]he cross-current was neither the product of a misapprehension nor the nation’s normal ups and downs. Instead, it was the result of a quarter-century long conversion of the nation’s economy from one of checks and balances to barely tempered free markets.

Interesting. Query: What baseline (pdf) is Mr. Gosselin using?