speculawyer
Member
Yeah, for all the bitching & moaning people do about policy, much of what happens is outside of the control of our policy choices. The rise of Japan and Europe after rebuilding after WW2. The Globalization of world trade. The rise of China due to reforms and opening up. Wars. Technology shifts . . . Clinton benefited from the PC & internet booms. Etc.Clinton added 23 million over 8 years, GWB added 3 million in 8 years, and I think Bush 41 had like 2.5 or something in 4 years. Reagan put in 16 million, and the worst president to ever grace the White House (yes, worse than Andrew Johnson) added 10.5 million.
"Job Creators"
It looks like "punishing" job creators actually makes them hire more people. Shock and awe.
And as my avatar suggests, oil politics is a huge thing. The 73' oil embargo hurt Nixon badly. The Iranian revolution and '79 oil crisis killed Carter. Reagan benefited massively from Alaska oil coming online, North Sea oil coming online, and then Saudi Arabia flooding the market with cheap oil. That boosted our economy and helped bring down the USSR since oil exports were one of their biggest hard currency generators.
So any look jobs created during an administration can be very misleading. The numbers are often more affected by things outside of their control. I think Obama has done fine with the economy given the current (shitty) situation. It is not like Japan, Korea, or Europe has done much better than us in the past few years.
I think it is just a shitty time for western industrialized nations. The price of oil that we all depend on has doubled TWICE since 2000. Developing nations now compete fiercely against each other at who can offer the cheapest manufacturing. Our populations are aging.
Whether it is Obama or Romney, there are just no magic bullets to make things better. Romney criticizes Obama's record but he doesn't provide any convincing policy prescriptions to make things better.