>I think the grandparent is implying that the 2018 estimate is modified to suit the preferences of revered leaders (not sure who... Trump? Obama? Yellen? Powell

>I think the grandparent is implying that the 2018 estimate is modified to suit the preferences of revered leaders (not sure who... Trump? Obama? Yellen? Powell?), presumably to portray the economy as doing well (whereas the 2007 estimate would suggest the economy is still far below its potential). I take revered leaders to be those who drive the economic models being used to calculate what people are supposed to believe… it could be those figure heads you mention, but it also could encompass a larger swath of people. >Does anyone think the employment situation is currently worse than 2010? If improving the unemployment rate from 10% to 4% just leads to treading water against potential GDP, how low does it need to go to catch up? -10%? If one ignores all the changes that have happened to see how the unemployment rate ("where 17 million American workers don't just disappear") is even calculated then sure, the economy is better, because the unemployment rate says so…