[xzins]

Consumer spending slowed under the weight of growing pessimism about the effectiveness of U.S. President Barack Obama's economic program and a growing sense that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won't unseat him. The president leads in polls in most swing states and the president has made clear his intention to double down on interventionist economic policies.

Gingrich and Santorum warned that Romney was not the man to unseat Obama.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Consumer spending slowed under the weight of growing pessimism about the effectiveness of U.S. President Barack Obama's economic program and a growing sense that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won't unseat him. The president leads in polls in most swing states and the president has made clear his intention to double down on interventionist economic policies.

Not sure how much I'd trust a guy that frames his analysis this way. Consumer spending slowed because more people have less disposable income...not because they believe obviously manipulated polls released by the New York Times. If this guy's point is that Reagan did better, fine, but Reagan wasn't performing as well at this point in the election campaign as Romney is...at least in polls that aren't weighted to a ridiculous extent toward a massive Democrat turnout.

I think this guy needs to go back to the drawing board on his analysis...he's got a bit of it right but he's pretty lazy overall.

[babble-on]

Reagan did have one huge advantage that is not available today, which is good Federal Reserve policy. The recession at the start of the Reagan years was a monetary policy recession.
Paul Volcker, to choke off double-digit inflation, raised short term interest rates into the teens.

But once oil started crashing (and continued to do so for years) Volcker could start lowering rates, and did so.

Today the monetary policy gears are stripped. There’s no traction from cutting rates (and now that cannot even be cut) because the transmission mechanism through the economy has been destroyed by the serial bubbles.

It will take time and good congressional policy to get through this. Time is inevitable, but good policy is hard to come by.

[SMARTY]

Four essentials for Reagan's success:

• Intellect
• DOCUMENTED Experience
• Focus
• Respect for America and Americans

There is NO other place to begin if you insist on passing yourself off as a President of the United States of America!

[Cyman]

With all due respect to the greatest President of modern times, to even mention the fiscal problems of the late 70”s in the same breath with the 2008 crisis IMHO sounds like the movement of a thrown frisbee.

[Jack of all Trades]

I'm one of the biggest Reagan fans going, but I'm really starting to wonder if most of what he did economically was restore American pride (as if that wasn't enough). Sure the tax changes helped, but I'm coming to think that it was the explosion of government spending and consumer credit that caused the 30 year economic expansion. If you look at debt like an addictive drug, those were the early, party days when just a little taste had a huge effect. Now it's like we're nearing the end of the addiction when everything revolves around getting more and more, and the effect is only to stave off possibly fatal withdrawal. We need more and more just to get back to "normal".

[RWB Patriot]

This article assumes dear leader and Reagan have the same goals.