THE REAL (RATHER THAN BS) STATE OF OUR ECONOMY.

January 7, 2016
by Ken Berwitz
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Ken Berwitz


“The economy, by everymetric, is better than when I came into office”  

The quote you just read comes to us President Obama, who shoveled it out to Jon Stewart the last time he was on The Daily Show (which Stewart has retired from, and the ratings have tanked under his replacement….but that is another story for another blog).

How do you deal with this boatload of BS?

Enter Boston Globe house conservative, Jeff Jacoby.

Jeff, like me, has noticed that a) the economy is at best weak and at worst nearly in a shambles, but b) somehow, Barack Obama never seems to be be blamed for it.  In fact, all too many media, and their gullible followers, have convinced themselves that we are in some kind of boom period.

I urge you – especially if you happen to be among the gullible noted above, to read Jeff\’s latest column.  But, in the meanwhile, here is a key segment:

Six million more Americans live in poverty today than when Obama was elected. Medianhousehold income (in real dollars) was no higher at the end of 2015 than at theend of 2007. The labor force participation rate – the share of working-ageAmericans who have a job or are looking for one – has sunkto 62.5 percent, a level not seen since the Carter administration. Since therecession ended, the economy has grown at an annual rate of just 2.2 percent.That is way below average for post-recession recoveries. Indeed, this has beenthe weakest economic recovery in modern times.

 It should have beenone of the strongest.

In America, thehistorical pattern has always been that the deeper the recession, the strongerthe recovery that follows. After a severe recession like the one Obamainherited, the economy should have come roaring back faster thanusual, quickly regained what had been lost. This isn\’t after-the-fact wisdom:It is what the administration itself predicted at the time. Far fromanticipating the limping slog of the last seven years, the White Houseconfidently forecast an economic recovery that would feature robust GDP growth of 4 percent or more. Itnever came close.

More Americans wouldbe working, paychecks would be larger, and public confidence would be sturdierif the economy had bounced back as vigorously as expected. Obama thought he hada better way to fix a recession. Turns out he had a worse way. Live and learn,voters.

Every point Jeff makes about the economy is true.  And, true to form, every point is either minimized or buried by most of our “wonderful” neutral media.

Why?  Other than partisanship, I have no answer. 

Incidentally, elsewhere in his column, Jeff points out that not only have Republicans put the wood to Mr. Obama over this economy, but two of the three Democrat presidential aspirants have as well:  Bernard “Bernie” Sanders and Martin O\’Malley.

By contrast, Hillary Clinton says “I\’d give him an A.  I don\’t think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for saving the economy from falling into a great depression”.

If Ms. Clinton\’s appraisal of the current economy is “An A”, then she is ripe for attack, just like President Obama was.  The problem?  The same media which have zealously protected Mr. Obama from such an attack are in equal protection mode for Ms. Clinton.  

Remember when we used to have journalists instead of paid propagandists?  Seems like quite a while ago, doesn\’t it?

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