The stock market keeps going up and the energy sector is doing well because of the fracking boom. Otherwise, I don’t see the economy improving all that much. People still seem to have money to spend on iPhones, cable TV and sports though.
Shh! Only a matter of time before this privately financed success on private lands gets the federal boot on it's neck. Just imagine the economy with all the fracking government's confiscated lands under production...
You are absolutely correct that the fracking boom is enabling the energy sector to do well, - and frankly has probably prevented catastrophic damage to the entire economy if we were still substantially dependent on imported oil.
Clinton likes to point out the economic success of the country under his administration, yet he likewise was the recipient of two factors for which he had no responsibility propping up the economy during his time in office.
First was the peace dividend - thanks to Reagan and Bush our enemies were so weakened we could cut back on defense spending - and Clinton overdid it to leave us in a weakened position leading to 9/11, but no one (in the media) ever puts the pieces together.
The second was the technology boom, largely driven by Y2K leading to vast efforts to update software and systems, along with a very shortened cycle of upgrading computer hardware to ensure there would be no problems - both by businesses and individuals. This created a vast boom at least as effective as fracking to help the economy.
So while Clinton was able to greatly reduce defense spending (short term solution that costs us greatly in the long term) while revenues were enhanced with a one-time technological need enabling a growing economy, Obama has done nothing but spend money while doing everything he can to hurt the economy. Bush had to deal with Clinton’s short sighted budget cuts and gets all the blame for both his predecessor’s ultimate result and his successor’s continuing failures.