Posted on 08/03/2004 10:06:14 PM PDT by neverdem
OP-CHART
Over the course of last week, we heard a lot from the Democrats about their record of economic achievement. So let's take the advice of a Democrat of yesteryear, Al Smith, the former governor of New York. His trademark phrase was, "Let's look at the record."
These charts show the rate of change in real gross domestic product and in employment from 1990 to last June. The shaded areas show recessions. The vertical lines show when President Bill Clinton took office and when he left. Because the economy has momentum, it's useful to look carefully at the trends in evidence at the time of presidential transitions. When you look at the record, a quick summary is this: President Clinton inherited prosperity; President Clinton bequeathed recession.
The 2001 recession was short and shallow, with employment - always a lagging indicator - the last part of the economy to rebound. The employment picture has been a little puzzling since the two main surveys - one asks existing establishments how many people are on their payrolls, and the other asks people in a large sample of households whether they have jobs - show slightly different patterns. In any case, by now a third piece of the record appears clear: the recession President Clinton left behind has turned into prosperity under George W. Bush.
Thanks, Al Smith, for your good advice.
George P. Shultz, secretary of the Treasury from 1972 to 1974 and secretary of state from 1982 to 1989, is a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Bookmark this sucker and warm up the printing presses.
Hooray for the New York Times printing this piece. Very good for the good guys.
There has to be some trick. Maybe the graph was accidently inserted in the paper upside down by an illegal alien who couldn't read English.
Or maybe Hillary has the editor's FBI file.
Notice how the Household Survey data on employment leads the Establishment Survey data when coming out of a downturn? Lots of us were making this exact point during the last two years when the Establishment Survey data continued to show job losses even though all of the other economic data pointed to a strong recovery.
Clinton inherited a booming economy, and handed in one in full recession.
Another chapter in:
Perhaps TeRAYsa and the Rev. Al finally got to the Times and they're (secretly) supporting Dubya.
Ain't that the truth! We lost so much money in our kids' college funds accounts toward the end of the Clinton years.
Terry McAulfie will probable call it a negative personal attack.
Dan Rather will run a story about a well orchestrated suspiciously timed leak.
The Washington Post will decry the Republicans' exploitation of the economy for political purposes.
Kerry will whine that the economy belongs to no political party, that his economic values are better than Bush's economic values, and that he's not going to allow Bush to question his economic patriotism because he served in Viet Nam under a tattered flag soaked in the his own blood splattered when he jumped in front of his crewmen to take shrapnel aimed at them.
Michael Moore will say Bush and the Saudi royals depressed the economy during Clinton's term and then staged 9/11 to cover the fake recovery.
Howard Dean will say he's opposed to the economy yeeeehoooowww!
LOL!! Excellent post...
Here's an interesting chart in the NY TIMES.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.