The U.S. economy under President Barack Obama is the worst at least since the tenure of Franklin Roosevelt, and by some measures may be even bleaker, The Washington Times reported.
In terms of average GDP during a president’s tenure, Obama comes up short by almost a full percentage point compared with any other modern president, with a 1.25 percent figure from 2009 through 2013.
“Now in its sixth year, his administration continues to wait in vain for a recovery. Even if the recovery arrives, it may be too late for it to matter,”
the Times reported.
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The nation’s average GDPs under other presidents were – Roosevelt (from 1933-40, excluding the war years) 6.2 percent; Harry Truman (1947-52) 3.8 percent; Dwight Eisenhower’s (1953-60) 3 percent; John F. Kennedy-Lyndon Johnson, (1961-68), 5 percent; Richard Nixon-Gerald Ford (1969-76), 2.8 percent; Jimmy Carter (1977-80), 3.3 percent; Ronald Reagan (1981-88), 3.5 percent; George H.W. Bush (1989-92), 2.3 percent; Bill Clinton (1993-2000), 3.9 percent; and George W. Bush (2001-08), 2.1 percent.
“After 5 years in office, the defense that he inherited a poor economy no longer resonates with most Americans. Looking at the earlier presidents, receiving a troubled economy is not unique — FDR and Reagan did — and others, such as George W. Bush with September 11, experienced unavoidable events that hit the economy hard.”
The newspaper noted the Obama economy has had the assistance of huge monetary and fiscal policy boosts, some of which were not available to other recent presidents.
For instance, the Federal Reserve has held interest rates near zero for an extraordinary length of time, federal spending averaged 22.8 percent of GDP during the president’s first five years — higher than its 20.5 percent average over the previous 40 years — and public debt more than doubled from $5.8 trillion to $12 trillion between 2008 and 2013.
“The time in which Mr. Obama could change his economic story may be shorter than even the 2 years remaining in his presidency. Should Republicans take control of Congress in November — an outcome only made more likely by his continued negative economic ratings — this could cloud the president’s claim to an economic recovery, even should it occur in his last two years.”
In fact, an economic recovery may finally be arriving.
Business Insider reported the top economist at Goldman Sachs estimates above-trend growth in the U.S. economy has finally returned after years of disappointing absence.
Goldman’s Jan Hatzius said the investment bank’s proprietary current activity indicator (CAI) showed annualized economic growth for the country of 3.4 percent in May.
Hatzius believes a pickup in housing activity and, more importantly in household formation, is buoying the economy and will continue.
Lawrence Summers, a former director of the National Economic Council under Obama, said in a recent speech in Canada that the economy may not be out of the woods yet.
Although economic growth has improved over the last few years, “secular stagnation is a possible hypothesis,” he said at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal, according Kitco News.
Summers told the audience that the problem now faced by the U.S. economy is the lack of demand, which may not be easy to solve.
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