Forbes: Obama's Accelerating Downward Spiral For America

Wiseone said:

I think there are more things that are different between the 80s and 2000s besides who was President, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but there are other things that can affect the economy besides who is President.

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When Reagan was president most of our finished goods were produced here in the good ole USA and we were one of the biggest creditor nation on Earth. Now we are one of the biggest debtor in the world.

Wiseone said:

I think there are more things that are different between the 80s and 2000s besides who was President, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but there are other things that can affect the economy besides who is President.

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The 80s sucked compared to today. I am no Republican but if Reagan was President now we'd have landed a man on the moon already.

Wiseone said:

I think there are more things that are different between the 80s and 2000s besides who was President, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but there are other things that can affect the economy besides who is President.

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MaggieD said:

The.buck.stops.there.

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That's a nice catch phrase and I'm sure the sign on Truman's desk looked great, and it may be that people level a greater amount of credit/blame on the President for things that happen because its simply easier to focus on one guy. And the President is the leader of the country, the face of it, and the man everyone agrees in on top even though we know there is a balance of power in the Federal Government. HOWEVER, that's no excuse or reason to deny that others have responsibilities and should be held accountable for not living up to that responsibility if they fail to do so, likewise if someone other than the President achieves something than they should get credit too.

So when we want to compare the economy of the United States under Reagan and under Obama, its only fair, right, and accurate to look beyond the Presidency to the Congress, the free market, and the rest of the world. All those groups share some responsibility, along with individuals within those groups, and its not right for them to get a pass if they do something wrong.

I'm not arguing that Reagan was a worse President than Obama or that his economic policies weren't better, and I'm not arguing the reverse either. My only point is that there is more to what goes on in the economy than who is President.

Running said:

I am no Republican but if Reagan was President now we'd have landed a man on the moon already.

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We landed a man on the moon in 1969, during Nixon's administration.

Also, this thread is full of fail and AIDS.

pbrauer said:

blame it all on trickle down economics -- it doesn't work and never will.

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I blame it on trickle up economics, too. Our governments have been failing us for Lord knows how long...

Where-o-where are the true statesmen?

Bronson said:

Reagan inherited a worse economic situation than Barack Obama

His economic approach was to slash tax rates across the board and have sound monetary policy

His economic record speaks for itself

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I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm not an expert or very knowledge on Reaganomics but his policies seemed to work at the time for the time he was in. However there were other things going on in the 70s which led to the economic problems, which by no measure were worse than the one's we had in 2008 when the housing bubble exploded and the international economic fallout over the next several years continuing to today. The 70s were the end of an almost 25 year post WW2 economic boom, and you don't have to be an economist to know that booms don't last forever.

In 1971 the US came off the Gold Standard, a move I don't disagree with but it caused some tremors as the economy adjusted. The 70s also saw the peak of US oil production, after that the US begun to import more and more oil every year as it continues to do so today. 1973 was the year OPEC launched an oil embargo against the United States as well, followed by a stock market crash that year and in 1974 as well. Inflation was also a huge problem in the 70s coming off both the end of the post war boom and the end of the gold standard, the United States had a money supply far too large for its economy. The solution was an increased interest rate by the Federal Reserve under Carter to decrease the money supply and encourage people to save. Reagan added onto this with tax cuts which helped achieve growth which combined with the Carter polices produced a double affect of economic growth AND decreasing money supply which eventually brought the two back into sync.

Carter didn't consider tax cuts because he was concerned about the Federal deficit which increased under Reagan's tax cuts, however it did have the benefit of bring the economic problems to a quicker close but again left us with more debt to eventually be paid off. I believe Carter was aiming for a slower but in the long term more stable recovery, by only decreasing the money supply inflation would slowly drop but the economy would not recover as fast. Reagan's policies produced a greater deficit that Bill Clinton was ultimately able to take credit for solving by cutting Federal Spending, primarily in the Department of Defense because the end of the Cold War had greatly reduced the need for a military that size. Of course neither Carter nor Reagan could have known that the USSR was going to fall in '91, Reagan got kind of lucky with that one because the solution to his increased debt appeared like a miracle after he left the White House.

washingtonpost.com: Reagan Policies Gave Green Light to Red Ink

So ya there's some economic history for you, covering almost 50 years just to talk about one decade only 4 years of which were actually Carter Presidency years. The point being, again, is that things are more complicated than just whos President.

Bronson said:

Reagan inherited a worse economic situation than Barack Obama

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Not that I'm holding my breath but... proof of this nonsense?

Bronson said:

His economic approach was to slash tax rates across the board and have sound monetary policy

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Everybody loves you when you put it on the credit card... till the bill comes home.

Bronson said:

His economic record speaks for itself

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His record breaking debt percentage increases sure did. Funny how republicans only bitch about government spending when their boy isn't in the whitehouse.