People warned us really early in the lockdown process: locking down a city or state will have devastating effects on the economy. Unfortunately, most leaders proceeded with lockdowns anyway, and now the full extent of the effects of this decision are coming to light.

According to an article with the Wall Street Journal, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has recently published state personal income and GDP data for the fourth quarter of 2020. So what did that new data reveal?

Well, we already knew that GDP in most states saw a steep decline during the "flatten the curve" phase last year.

Now we have a new crucial piece of information: states that allowed businesses to reopen earlier in the pandemic saw a significant bounce back by the end of year. States that maintained its lockdowns did not.

Shocker, I know. If only someone such as OutKick founder Clay Travis would have warned us, right? It's not like Clay, among several others, spent the entire summer and fall months of 2020 telling us how important it is to reopen the country.

The article points out that while Democratic governors continue to ease business restrictions, unemployment rates in states such as California (8.5%) and New York (8.9%) remain significantly higher than the national average (6.2%).

New York City more than doubled that number with a 12.9% unemployment rate -- but let's keep talking about how well Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been doing, right? This quote from the article sums up the assumptions and approach from Democrats nicely:

This is frustrating for many Americans because the imprudence of shutting down the economy should have been obvious to those in charge. Instead, the decision-makers went full-steam ahead, and now good people in these cities are suffering as a result.

Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis let almost all businesses stay open after May, and the state's private GDP shrunk by only 1.1 percent by the end of the year -- but let's also keep talking about how terrible of a job DeSantis has done, right?

This could have been avoided.

Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.

Bureau of Economic Analysis

Data Shows States That Shut Down The Longest Suffered The Most Economically