In June America’s economic expansion will be seven years old. That is practically geriatric: only three previous ones lasted longer. The record boom of the 1990s survived only ten years. It is tempting to look at that ten-year mark as something like the maximum lifespan of an expansion in America, and to worry, correspondingly, that the current expansion’s days are running short. But are they? At a press conference in December Janet Yellen, chairman of America’s Federal Reserve, declared: “I think it’s a myth that expansions die of old age.” Yet die they do. Either Ms Yellen is wrong, or someone is bumping off otherwise healthy expansions before their time.
Murder most foul
