Maybe a CMT could help

There was a throwaway comment in a post by Karl Smith about a month back that got me thinking. In particular, the folks who are arguing for more monetary and fiscal stimulus rely, in part, on the notion that we have fallen off our glide path as it relates to the trajectory of GDP. Here's the chart -- I have added my own trendline in red:

As someone who definitely takes an interest in technical analysis as a tool for investing, I find it curious that economists think the patch between 2002 and 2008 should somehow be deemed the new baseline. If you think the economy was in the midst of a major bubble, which I do, and that perhaps there was an illusion of wealth at work, then why isn't a resumption of the pre-bubble trendline more appropriate?