New Normal #1
Created by WW 2 
as U.S. industry had few competitors so  both profits and wages increased substantially for 25 years.

New #2 Oil Embargos and Japanese Competition
Began Wage Stagnation

Japan's competitive manufacturing sector accelerated causing stagnate Rust Belt wages and employment. Why? Japan got lucky when gas efficient small green cars required change and U.S. manufacturing responded by protected profits with less quality improving capital investment. They also got unions to accept a two-tier wage system that minimized wage increases for new workers.  Pressure on foreign manufactures resulted in them building new U.S. plants.

Great Recession Stages from
The Shifts and the Shocks by Martin Wolf
1. A more complex unstable large¹ financial/credits system evolved creating extreme optimism in good times and panic in bad times. Think derivatives, securitization, credit default swaps all managed by hedge funds.
2. Emerging countries lowered borrowing and increased trade surpluses creating a savings glut after the 1997 Asian Debt Crisis made their foreign dollar dominate debt buildup unsustainable. Instead they expanded trade and kept personal consumption below economic growth. Less consumption and borrowing plus a trade surplus increased Dollars, Euros, and Yen reserves the world's spenders could borrow. Think China and Russia.
3. Aggregate demand stagnated because high income countries like German, Japan and OPEC increased trades surpluses. Germany's 2005 economic renewal was not spent and Japan's private sector saved much more after their 1990's credit bubble explosion.
Adding to these demand shortage were companies who maintained profit by decreasing capital investment spending despite historically low interest rates. Globalization and technology also helped them maintain profit as wage increases were limited to most valuable employees. State and local governments, especially those with under funded pension systems, also cut expenditures. Think workers maintain living standards with home equity loans.

4. Increased current account deficits by wealthy countries balanced world trade. Higher demand for foreign goods was made possible by massive central bank supported low interest loans. The  FED's historic monetary expansion was made possible by continuing low inflation resulting from expanding world competition and low oil prices. Innovative financing and lax regulation also fostered demand expansion. Think excess OPEC savings caused Latin American Debt Crisis..
5. Real Estate and Stock bubbles resulted as expected from low long-term real interest rates.  New home buyers borrowed the surplus savings and investors devoured the growing unique debt securities created by an expanding finance industry that now promised insured difficult to understand almost guaranteed financial instruments. Leverage rose dramatically. Fraud, near fraud and data manipulation exploded. Few remembered the housing collapse of the Great Depression. Think Bubbles.
6. Poor Crisis Management by politicians as their economic advisors who believed market capitalism would prevent serious recessions. This view was amplified by the fifteen year Great Moderation. Few knew that new unique financial market instruments increased possible financial contagion. When it started, political, intellectual and bureaucratic leaders resisted quick action especially in areas requiring cooperation. A depression was avoided in the U.S. by FED, Treasury and Congressional efforts that were slowed by austerity. Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal experienced economic depression. See VII of The Great Recession and
Mark Blyth: After the Financial Crisis: How to Tell the Forest from the Trees 57 min. video