It is worth noting that in mid-1990, it was not generally recognized that the economy was flirting with recession. For example, Federal Reserve Board transcripts showed that in July of 1990, Alan Greenspan said that he thought the economy should remain healthy for the rest of the year. (The recession is now dated as having begun in June of 1990.)

The article goes on to note that in 1990, "inflation was a problem, interest rates were fairly high, federal budget deficits were spiraling out of control and numerous financial institutions were near broke," implying that the current situation is better by comparison. This narrow set of measures does not give a good view of the state of the economy. The fact that the U.S. economy is recovering from the collapse of an enormous bubble in the stock market and is likely to experience a collapse of the bubble in the housing market in the near future has far more impact on the economy than the measures noted in the article. Record levels of consumer debt and current account deficits approaching $500 billion a year also pose enormous problems for the economy.

The claim that the federal budget deficit was out of control in 1990 is wrong. The budget deficit had been 2.8 percent of GDP in 1989, before rising to 3.9 percent of GDP in 1990, primarily as a result of the recession. The deficit that was in place prior to the onset of the recession could have been sustained indefinitely - therefore it was not "out of control" in the normal meaning of the term.