A Question for/about Conservatives and Libertarians

If you’re a regular reader of Angry Bear, you’ve read this post before. But I’m going write it again.

Think back to January of 2001. Say you told any conservative or libertarian that there would be what the White House refers to as a “mild recession” later that year. Say you also told that conservative or libertarian that by the beginning of 2008, the economy would have enjoyed years of tax cuts, years of cheap money coupled with low inflation, years of reduced regulation, and a couple (semi-privatized) small wars. Would they have predicted that along the way, real growth would be sub-par, and right now we’d be facing the possibility of a major downturn? Could they have even accepted that combination of facts? Is what we’re seeing a feasible outcome of any conservative or libertarian model?