Yet this time, thanks to the world recession, the differences between participants from north and south seemed wider.The leaders of Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and (less convincingly) Argentina reckon their countries have followed progressive policies more rigorously than their friends in the north.
Even in an age of retrenchment caused by the global recession, the differences between the parties will matter -- perhaps even more.
At the same time that credit was tightening and consumers were becoming more nervous, a reliable warning light of recession -- the difference between long- and short-term interest rates -- was blinking.
The purpose of a stimulus is to fill the hole left during a recession by the difference between the economy's potential and what it's actually producing — what economists call the "output gap".
"It's fair to say that a very aggressive response by the Federal Reserve, by the Treasury, and by both the Bush and Obama administrations during the panic and great recession has made the difference.
A similar result is seen in the recession period, but the difference is much smaller.
But the reality is that private-sector job growth has more or less matched the recoveries from the last two recessions; the big difference this time is an unprecedented fall in public employment, which is now about 1.4 million jobs less than it would be if it had grown as fast as it did under President George W. Bush.
That is about four percentage points lower than the employment rate before the recession, a difference of roughly 10 million jobs.
A WALL Street maxim holds that the difference between recession and depression is that a recession is when your neighbor loses his job.
And no wonder: Holiday sales could spell the difference between recession and recovery for them.
If the existing policy becomes cheaper because of the recession, why not just pocket the difference and be thankful for small mercies?
