Replies

Yeah, I remember the constant cheer-leading on CNBC. However, even while talking the market up, they would put on enough shorts to provide "balance" -- even though the shorts were usually nothing more than fresh meat for the rabid bulls to gore. It was supposed to be "the end of the business cycle" thanks to the Internet. (There's some truth to that, because of vastly improved supply-chain and inventory management -- but, in retrospect, it was mostly hype.)

Clinton gets credit for a strong economy -- even though he should be blasted for presiding over a bubble. Bush will never get the credit he deserves for preventing a serious depression after the bubble was burst, to say nothing of containing the damage to the economy after 9/11. The U.S. (and the rest of the world) is fortunate that the U.S. economy didn't go the way of the Japanese economy after the collapse of their real estate bubble a decade earlier. I "blame" Bush.

Reagan gets credit for nearly a quarter century of sustained grown (with very minor down-ticks over that time). Clinton gets "credit" for doing nothing to seriously mess with the economy, and the credit for that goes to the Republicans for taking control of Congress in 1995. Clinton is the biggest do-nothing president we've ever had, and for that we should all be grateful.