If it “had done no better than match the postwar average, the US economy would be more than two trillion dollars richer than it is — which translates to thousands of dollars per American household.
Heckuva job, Barry.”
This is why it’s such deception by the Democrats to say “how many jobs were created.” It ignores how many weren’t, or were destroyed.
Though note that “the economy would be richer” does not, in fact, directly translate to personal wealth.
The implication that those “thousands of dollars per American household” would be raw income is untenable.
(This does not mean the Democrats in Congress and the White House haven’t done any harm, just that we have to be careful slinging around GNP numbers like they’re income.
And we should always remember that Congress and especially the President have pretty limited powers over the economy; “the postwar average” isn’t a revealed law of nature, just a historical fact, and possibly other people in Congress and the White House would have been able to do only marginally better than the ones we had.
This is as true for Obama as it was for Bush; I like to be consistent.)
Nixon did takes us off the gold standard, which has been the cause of much of our inflation since the early seventies.
I agree though that presidents don’t have much effect over the economy, except how they get the Federal Reserve to do their dirty business. The Fed is a political organization, as anyone who has been watching QE and the massive money printing since 2008.
If you want to improve the economy, get rid of the Fed.
And we should always remember that Congress and especially the President have pretty limited powers over the economy;
I disagree because the laws, regulations, and taxes passed and proposed by the President and Congress do have large impacts on the economy.
The government can make it easier or harder on businesses. There is a large element of our society that wants to make it harder on businesses. Lower these hurdles and businesses will do better. People will be more likely to succeed when starting a business. Marginal businesses will have a better chance of survival.
The government can also do things to enable businesses and they do through the SBA and other informational resources provided. Some of this can be good as long as subsidies don’t create perverse incentives.
The government will never “create” jobs as it lacks creativity and knowledge. But it can enable job creation by getting out of the way and providing information and organizational consulting carried out by third party industry partners.
Disrespecting Mr. Obama’s economic policies is not going to do it. Let’s start a discussion about Secretary Clinton and Benghazi:
Hail, hail, fire and snow
Call the angel we will go
Far away, for to see
Friendly Angel, come to me
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Gorgan