Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have argued that the 2007–2009 financial crisis explains not just the severity of the accompanying recession but also the slowness of the subsequent economic recovery. Michael Bordo of Rutgers
University has argued that Reinhart and Rogoff’s argument is incorrect. Instead, he argues that the slow recovery was due to “the unprecedented housing bust” and “uncertainty over changes in fiscal and regulatory policy.” If you were attempting to evaluate the relative merits of Reinhart and Rogoff’s and Bordo’s arguments, what type of evidence would you look at? Is it likely that you could definitively identify the causes of the slow recovery? Briefly explain.