The Weakest Economic Recovery in Modern Times

Even in boom times, any president can expect candidates from the opposing party to subject his record to pitiless scrutiny. The economy under Barack Obama isn't exactly filling voters with confidence, so it's not surprising that presidential hopefuls are pretty severe in their critique.
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Michelle Obama: ‘We Are in the Midst of a Huge Recovery’

(CNSNews.com) – Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States, said on Friday that the United States is in the “midst of a huge recovery” because of what “this president has done.”

In an interview, Pablo Sato, co-host of Pablo & Free on WPGC 95.5, a D.C.- metropolitan area hip-hop radio station, asked the first lady, “Mrs. Obama, you know what, in your words, tell us what you think the state of the union is in right now?”

Mrs. Obama said, “I mean, we are seeing right now that we are in the midst of a huge recovery. Right? Because of what this president has done.”

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AEI: Can the Middle Class Be Rebuilt?

What Should Government Do? Less
By Andrew G. Briggs - As a foundation for the middle class, good jobs, stable families and individual creativity are hard to beat. America didn't generate the strongest middle class in history by having lots of bureaucrats and rules but by having few of them, creating a chaotic economy in which college dropouts become C.E.O.'s and seemingly only political offices are handed down father-to-son. Read more at American Enterprise Institute

Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at AEI. Read More......

Obama's Recovery A Flop Of Historical Proportions

As President Obama prepares to deliver yet another speech about stimulating the economy — this one to a joint-session of Congress (with or without the NFL game on the monitors) — it's worth reviewing the results of his efforts to date.

It has now been a little over two years — and eight full economic quarters — since the end of the recession Obama inherited. It's time to ask: How does his record of economic growth in the wake of a recession stack up against the records of other presidents?

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Reagan or Obama

INSPIRE AND IGNITE/Just a Thought, 12/10/2010 by Josiah Hill - How’s that bigger government is better idea working out for the American people? ∴ Let’s look at the recovery the country enjoyed under Reagan and compare it to the one we’re currently experiencing under Obama. ∴ Since the current recession ended in June of 09 according to the experts, we’ve now had 15 months of the Obama recovery. How does it compare to the first 14 months of the Reagan recovery? ∴ These figures come from government records and not any biased third party:

Consumer confidence: Reagan 103.9 / Obama 53.5
Average GDP growth: Reagan 7.7% / Obama 3%
Unemployment rate: Reagan 8% / Obama 9.6%

The evidence indicates that the Reagan recovery was much stronger than the one we are experiencing now. The difference? ∴ President Reagan believed that government was the problem. ∴ President Obama believes that government is the answer. ∴ Decide for yourself who is right. Read More......

Samuelson: Will U.S. Recovery Go Global?

WASHINGTON POST, 8/17/2009 by Robert J. Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - Before we get too giddy about any U.S. economic "recovery," we should remember that the preceding economic collapse was global. No recovery can succeed unless it, too, is global. Will that happen? The world can no longer rely for growth on free-spending Americans, who are overburdened by debt and sobered by trillions of dollars of losses on homes and stocks. Without a substitute for American buying, any global revival will be feeble, because the United States needs export-led growth and other countries must somehow offset their lost sales to our market. Read more at the Washington Post...
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Green Shoots or Scorched Earth?

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, 8/14/2009, Bulletins From Clunkerville by Mike Whitney - Is the economy really recovering or is it all just hype? ∴ Here's what we know. The Fed doesn't drop rates to zero unless its facing a 5 alarm fire and needs to pull out all the stops. The idea is to flood the markets with liquidity in order to avoid a complete financial meltdown. It's a last-ditch maneuver and the Fed does not take it lightly. ∴ The Fed initiated its zero interest rate policy, ZIRP, eight months ago (December 16 2008) and hasn't raised rates since. In the meantime, Fed chair Ben Bernanke has pumped huge amounts of money into the financial system using thoroughly-untested and unconventional means. No one knows whether Bernanke can roll up his multi-trillion dollar lending facilities or not (and avoid Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation) because no one has ever created similar programs. It's all "make-it-up-as-you-go" policymaking. What we do know, however, is that the Fed intends to keep rates at rock-bottom for the foreseeable future, which means that the lights are all still blinking red. Read more at ICH... Read More......

EU Prez: Obama's rescue plan is 'road to hell'

THE GUARDIAN UK, 3/25/2009 by Ian Traynor - Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek adds to transatlantic friction. The scale of friction over a concerted plan for global economic recovery was exposed today when the current European Union president branded Barack Obama administration's programme as a "road to hell" and said European leaders were "quite alarmed" at the White House's policies. Read more at the Guardian... Read More......

Obama says US will revive past 'reckoning'

WASHINGTON (AP), 2/24/09 - Standing before the nation on a "day of reckoning," President Barack Obama summoned politicians and public alike Tuesday night to forge a path out of the worst economic disaster in a quarter-century by embracing shared sacrifice and costly new endeavors to improve health care, schools and the environment. --"The time to take charge of our future is here," Obama declared in his first address to a joint session of Congress, watched by millions of worried Americans on television and the Internet. --Adding words of reassurance, he said, "Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before." Read more at Breitbart... Read More......

History of U.S. Economic Crashes since 1929

Worst Economy of the Last 50 Years? Wizbang has market graphs, common sense and the whole shebang on the five largest meltdowns from the Great Depression on.

According to the historical data, the United States has suffered five periods between 1920 and today where the value of the stock market dropped greater than 40% -- 1929 to 1932, 1937, 1973 to 1974, 1987, and 2008. Both of the market drops during the 1930's were either worsened or directly caused by misdirected government intervention. And the 1970's was defined by Keynesian economic policies throughout the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, beginning with Nixon's wage and price controls and ending with Carter's attempts to manipulate the market through interest rates and cap the cost of energy through excessive government regulation. In contrast, despite the suddenness and the size of the 1987 market drop, the Reagan Administration eschewed an overblown response, and the market recovered on its own. Liberals like to point out that most major recessions have occurred during Republican administrations. But market data also indicates that the longest and most damaging recessions occurred during times of heavy interventionist government policies, the kinds of policies strongly supported by today's Democrats.

Check out Wizbang's logic and see what you think... Read More......