If you examine the attached graph one factor that might jump out at you is that the current “recovery” has been the worst one since WWII in terms of the percentage job losses and the time necessary for a full recovery in the job market making it, already, the most expensive since WWII.
Another less clear, but equally valid observation is that the post-WWII recession have become progressively more costly in terms of percentage job losses and duration of recovery. The four recoveries post-Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 were the four longest and costliest recoveries of the WWII and this data suggests that things have only become worse over time.
The shortest and shallowest recovery — 1980 — should probably be considered part of the recession of 1981. The recession of 1948 was one of the deepest and longest during the period, but it should be attributed to the readjustment at the end of WWII and not really a true recession. The recessions of 1953, 1957, and 1960 could be considered the typical recession of the Bretton Woods period. The recessions of 1969 and 1974 combine to form the period of stagflation brought about the Bretton Woods Crisis, President Nixon taking us off the gold standard, and the Stagflation of the 1970s.
The clear lesson is that as the Fed has become more powerful and destructive that the resulting business cycles it has caused have grown deeper, longer, and more painful.
