The purported recovery of the economy under President Barack Obama is a dismal failure compared to those of past administrations, says John Merline, a senior writer and editorial board member with Investor's Business Daily.
"The Obama recovery started in June 2009, so it's almost five years old," Merline told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"If this recovery had been as good as the average recovery over the previous 10 recessions, the economy would be $1.5 trillion bigger today than it is. That's how poorly this recovery has been," he said Wednesday.
Merline said that if Obama's recovery had been as good as the administration of President Ronald Reagan's recovery, the economy would be $2 trillion bigger than it is today.
"If it had done as well as the one [President John F.] Kennedy started, it would be $3 trillion bigger than it is today," he said.
On Wednesday, the Commerce Department released figures that show the economic recovery slowed to a crawl in the first quarter of 2014.
Gross domestic product, the measure of the value of goods and services, increased by just 0.1 percent in the first quarter — a disappointment to economists who had been predicting growth of closer to 1 percent.
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