Booming in spite of Obama

You hear Dems argue that Bush caused the recession and that Obama inherited this terrible economy.  Here’s proof that it ain’t so. In 37 recessions and recoveries since the country began, there are only 3 where the drop in employment didn’t come back just as fast as it fell--1931, 1937 and 2007.  What caused the refusal to recover?   It was government intervention that scared the socks off of businesses. That’s what the debt engorgement, regulation war on business and Obamacare have done to the recovery.  Here’s another proof.  After a recession, there is a surge of growth for awhile until the recovery gets tired and slows down, then is susceptible to another recession when a bubble occurs.  2007 was a world-wide recession with world GDP sliding by -0.8% as late as 2009.  But then in 2010, the exploding recovery sent world GDP to +5.0%.  It has since settled back to +3.1%.  But, despite the growth worldwide, USA has languished at about 1.5-2.0% as frightened businesses found it hard to expand and refused to rehire.  Non-working adults has risen from 80 million to almost 92 million.  It is a jobless, anemic recovery. And so the world whispers that America is sliding into oblivion and doing all the wrong things. 

            Then last year came a resurgence.  By mid-year growth had topped 3% for the first time since 2006.  The stock market, anticipating better times grew by almost 30%.  That’s the sort of thing you usually see right after a recession.  What happened?  The economy grew despite Obama.  Politicians are always quick to claim credit for good times, especially Democrats.  But here’s what The Economist said, “First household and corporate balance sheets are in good shape. Americans have put the hangover from the financial crisis behind them.  The revival in house prices is a testament to that.”  So how did Obama get millions of corporations and individuals to clean up their debts?  The article continues, “Second, thanks to cheap energy, years of wage restraint and a relatively weak dollar, America is competitive.” Are we going to credit Obama with cheap energy, he who has dug in his heels over drilling on federal lands and tried to shut down offshore exploration until a court made him re-open it?  Or maybe he can polish his nails over wage restraint, the guy who demands higher minimum wages?  About the only thing we can give him credit for is the cheap dollar due to the dysentery of debt and government spending. Keep reading, “Finally, the fiscal squeeze (British talk.  They mean “deficit”)  is abating.  The recently agreed budget deal will cut the fiscal squeeze to 0.5% of GDP this year.” Shall we then credit Obama with reducing spending? Instead, he held increased spending over the Republican’s heads in the October shutdown.   Bottom line, almost all that USA has done to rectify our recovery has been done outside Washington and all has been done outside the White House.

            So if he says, “You didn’t build that” again, we need to say, “The heck we didn’t!”