The robust Reagan recovery contrasted to the anemic Obama one
Although Bruce and I have different styles and do put different spins on things, it is often uncanny how certain issues strike us simultaneously. Just as I was beginning a post on the jobs numbers, linking a piece by the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) James Pethokoukis, I find that Bruce had just posted on the numbers linking a piece by that very AEI blogger.
Bruce concludes his post contrasting the robust Reagan recovery with its anemic Obama counterpart. In the Pethothoukis post I caught, the blogger provided the details of that contrast:
Job growth during the three-year Obama recovery has averaged just 75,000 a month for a total of 2.7 million. During the first three years of the Reagan Recovery, job growth averaged 273,000 a month for a total of 9.8 million. If you adjust for the larger U.S. population today, the Reagan Recovery averaged 360,000 jobs a month for a three-year total of 13 million jobs.
Read the whole thing! Via Glenn Reynolds who was one of many conservative and libertarian bloggers who linked the above, referencing that post in one of his two roundups on the job numbers, the other here.
Lots of good stuff in both detailing just how bad this recovery is — and explaining why.
FROM THE COMMENTS: Rattlesnake asks, “How much did Reagan spend for each of those jobs that were created under his watch?”
ALSO FROM THE COMMENTS (and slightly unrelated): V the K asks us to “Imagine the mess this guy will inherit if he’s re-elected.” In that unfortunate event, would he be blaming himself when the economy remains in the doldrums?
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The good news is: The SCOAMF isn’t letting millions of unemployed Americans interfere with his golf schedule:
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2012/07/why-the-june-numbers-for-obama-arent-all-that-bad.html
Comment by V the K — July 6, 2012 @ 7:01 pm - July 6, 2012
Notice that Obama was in Pennsylvania and Ohio to trumpet his message that the economy is ¨slowly¨getting better, where unemployment is below the national 8.2%. What was the unemployment rate before Tom Corbett and John Kasich, both Republicans, took office? It was higher than when they took office. The Reagan formula, which they are following, continues to bring positive results.
Comment by Roberto — July 6, 2012 @ 7:21 pm - July 6, 2012
How much did Reagan spend for each of those jobs that were created under his watch?
Comment by Rattlesnake — July 6, 2012 @ 8:37 pm - July 6, 2012
Government spending is a drag on the economy, not a stimulant.
It’s hard for people to get their minds wrapped around that. But it’s true. We’re seeing it in front of us, right now. Government spending doesn’t work. It props up those who are unrealistic, imprudent (think of the people who gave us the housing bubble), lazy and/or incompetent – at the expense of those who are realistic, prudent, hard-working and competent. The economy can’t grow, or at least not very well, under such conditions.
A massive Keynesian establishment spews propaganda night and day to keep us from seeing the truth. It would be people in government, media and academia who gain from government spending and want to keep the ‘spending game’ going. Which is to say: most economists, most media workers, every politician and every government worker.
Part of the propaganda these people spew to confuse the issues, is to point out that government spending increases under Reagan. They usually they fudge the numbers to overstate the increases. But the larger point, that they wish to obscure, is that Reagan’s economy recovered *in spite of*, not because of, said spending increases.
Reagan’s economy recovered because Reagan did at least *slow* the growth of government (over what the Democrats wanted), and because Reagan did at least some good in terms of rationalizing the tax code, deregulation, and improving America’s national security, and because Volcker’s high interest rates did the economy a lot of good, in terms of killing off malinvestment and making people ‘get real’.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 7, 2012 @ 9:19 am - July 7, 2012
The public sector is not doing particularly well at this point, and so Obama was correct in stating that we need more government jobs and less in the private sector. Why? Because liberals know what each of us desires and needs inside our little brains.
Comment by davinci — July 7, 2012 @ 12:17 pm - July 7, 2012
Obama and his cult seem baffled that imposing massive new regulations on industry, halting domestic energy exploration, embiggening the regulatory bureaucracy, and placing employers under the constant threat of lawsuits and new taxes hasn’t led to an economic boom.
Imagine the mess this guy will inherit if he’s re-elected.
Comment by V the K — July 7, 2012 @ 12:31 pm - July 7, 2012
He’ll deserve it.
But, for what I came to say… Here is an update on that famous job chart which the Dear Reader used to sell Porkulus: http://www.sovereignman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/070612rbjune-577×338.jpeg
Highlights:
- They said that, without their “Recovery Plan”, unemployment would be down around 5-6% by now. (NOTE: I believe they got that right. As already suggested, it is precisely their “Recovery Plan” which kills job creation and recovery. Unemployment would be a lot lower by now, if they hadn’t passed it.)
- Instead, unemployment today is officially 8.2%…
- And that’s only because millions have become so discouraged that they’ve left the workforce. If millions hadn’t left the workforce, i.e. by January 2009 standards, unemployment would now be 10,9%… HIGHER than when Obama took office and pushed the so-called “Recovery Plan”.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 7, 2012 @ 1:04 pm - July 7, 2012
And, as we all know, the private sector does not benefit in any way, shape, or form from government spending. Yes, that’s right; academia has all the power in this country. Liberal arts professors making $80,000 rule the free world and the government bends to their every whim.
Corporations don’t form lobbying organizations, they don’t form associations that form lobbying organizations on behalf of their industry, they don’t contribute to politicians, they don’t help politicians write legislation, they don’t finance think tanks that influence politicians, they don’t own sprawling media empires that influence the electorate, they don’t beg the government for tax cuts, they don’t argue that they should receive government funding and subsidies, and the billionaires running these companies most certainly don’t walk away scott free and slightly richer after bringing the global economy to the brink….
No, no, no, it’s academia. And poor people who are lazy. Anyone with any sense knows this to be true. What’s trillions of dollars of wealth, power, and influence compared to some philosophy teaching babbling about ethics?
Comment by Levi — July 8, 2012 @ 3:07 am - July 8, 2012
I don’t even need to read Levi’s comments anymore, to know in advance that he will spew exactly the propaganda of:
And so, not be worth answering.
Perhaps he’ll go on about the “corporations acting all corporation-y” or something… not realizing, not being ever capable of realizing, that I’m way ahead of him on that one… and that, to the extent there are dysfunctional or parasitic corporations, Big Government is what makes it all possible.
He’ll never get it. Some people are (self-)condemned to insanity.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 8, 2012 @ 3:27 am - July 8, 2012
[...] Gay Patriot contrasts Obama’s economic “recovery” with Reagan’s [...]
Pingback by Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup » Pirate's Cove — July 8, 2012 @ 8:05 am - July 8, 2012
For all the sense that the conservative play-by-play of the financial crisis makes, you might as well call it a Martian conspiracy. I’m expected to ignore the companies and individuals that made billions of dollars off of the deal and believe some hastily-spun yarn about programs that existed for decades that only coincidentally came to a head under a Republican administration. What won’t you believe?
I agree that our government contributed mightily to the problem, by the way – this is what happens when you fill the government with short-sighted, bought-and-paid for twats. That doesn’t mean that government or the size of government are inherent problems, it means that government is a problem when it’s filled with short-sighted, bought-and-paid for twats. Parading around like this was some kind of certainty is childish and stupid – we got what we deserved because the electorate doesn’t know how to vote properly, as evidenced by their willingness to re-elect a man-child to the presidency in 2004. I will agree that government is only going to create more problems when you hand over the keys to a teenager, but that’s what conservatives felt like they needed to do.
Comment by Levi — July 8, 2012 @ 10:04 am - July 8, 2012
The problem is, levi, that you are a brainwashed shill who believes corporations and businesses are evil, that profit is bad, and that fascist all-controlling government that drags people “kicking and screaming” in the direction you want them to go is the most wonderful thing in existence.
You are mentally incapable of recognizing anything outside this belief system. Therefore, you see ILC’s explanation as a “Martian conspiracy”, not because it is wrong from an objective standpoint, but because it runs completely contrary to your subjective brainwashing.
People need to remember this. Levi and his ilk are Obama Youth; they have been brainwashed and manipulated since birth to worship the government and now their Dear Leader Barack Obama as gods.
Do not waste time trying to explain the unexplainable to them. Let them spew their rants like Levi does here and demonstrate just how outside reality they are — and then laugh as you think of the poor helpless Levi actually trying to function in a business and off a welfare check.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — July 8, 2012 @ 2:05 pm - July 8, 2012
Let’s not forget that Levi holds President Bush responsible for 9/11, thinks brown people are unable of understanding democracy, and then presumes to lecture us on conspiracy theories? He is the puppy chewing slippers.
Now hush Levi, the adults are talking.
Comment by The_Livewire — July 8, 2012 @ 6:12 pm - July 8, 2012
“…we got what we deserved because the electorate doesn’t know how to vote properly, as evidenced by their willingness to re-elect a man-child to the presidency in
20042008.”FIFY.
I knew that nobody could possibly say anything that stupid on purpose.
“That doesn’t mean that government or the size of government are inherent problems, it means that government is a problem when it’s filled with short-sighted, bought-and-paid for twats.” Very true, just look at the current administration. You miss the point even as you state it – as was known 236 years ago, THAT’S WHAT GOVERNMENT TENDS TO ATTRACT! That’s the basic reason that government needs to be kept small, so it can’t cause as much damage. Why is this so hard for liberals to grasp?
Comment by alanstorm — July 8, 2012 @ 10:40 pm - July 8, 2012
I think the more entertaining thing, alan, is that Levi screams and whines that the electorate doesn’t know how to vote “properly”.
Which is to say that the screaming Levi thinks the electorate should be forced to vote as he and his fellow one-party totalitarian Obama progressives want, just like his idols in Cuba.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — July 9, 2012 @ 11:12 am - July 9, 2012
So, actually reading Levi’s comments… wow, I was right. First, he didn’t even understand (much less fairly state) what I said. Second, he rushes to defend the Keynesian propagandists. Third, he does so by saying a bunch of stuff amounting to “The corporations acting all corporation-y! That’s the problem!” Fourth, he misses the fact that Big Government is the one acting badly, thus requiring corporations to lobby just to defend themselves. Fifth and as always, Levi thinks that if only we elect the right Fuehrer, then all can and will be well with Big Government. Sixth, he starts talking about Martian conspiracies.
Yes, it does. The government, i.e. its present size, is an *****INHERENT**** problem. The situation, with government large and growing out of control, can *****NEVER***** be made to work. Naturally, as a fascist – that is, a worshipper of Big Government – you hate being told that, and will reject the information.
FIFY, Levi.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 10, 2012 @ 11:09 am - July 10, 2012
Ah, alanstorm beat me to it
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 10, 2012 @ 11:11 am - July 10, 2012