I only want to point out the absurdity of your first sentence "recessions since the late 1970s"
So the timeline for your analysis is ~30 years? That is not convincing to me, this current recession is already going on 4 years and shows no signs of stopping. The extreme cherry picking of data and reasoning like yours is exactly why I stopped studying economics in college, but hey at least you were able to throw in some partisan politics in your post right?
Back when I was in graduate school, the general belief around the economics department was that the unemployment rate was whatever Alan Greenspan wanted it to be, plus or minus a bit to account for the fact he was not God. So I didn't invent the term "Great Moderation" and you have a lot of reading to do if you think the phenomenon it describes has anything to do with me.
On your second point, it's hardly partisan to point out that Republicans have consistently raised the specter of a debt crisis and soaring interest rates to attack the feasibility of further monetary or fiscal stimulus directed at anything but the banking sector. Or even at the banking sector (it wasn't Democrats who derailed the first bailout vote). And yet during this time US borrowing costs have fallen to the point where the ten year rate is now basically below expected inflation and everything points to the United States being caught in a liquidity trap. People are even paying the US government to hold money at a loss!
I don't know why someone pointing this out should hurt your feelings, since your complaint is with reality. It might feel nice to think that this is a partisan instead of a policy critique, but harping at me isn't going to make Republican economic policy less destructive or make the bond market change direction.
So the timeline for your analysis is ~30 years? That is not convincing to me, this current recession is already going on 4 years and shows no signs of stopping. The extreme cherry picking of data and reasoning like yours is exactly why I stopped studying economics in college, but hey at least you were able to throw in some partisan politics in your post right?