The economy will magically improve in the press in February of 09 if a democrat wins the white house.
Still recall the 1992 elections. Under Bush #1 the economy was awful, as bad as under Hoover. In reality during Bush's last term we had five percent annual growth rate - which is better than we got now.
The day after Clinton got elected the economy was going great. Wonderful. Happy days are here again.
The economy was so good that Clinton decided that we needed an "Economic Stimulus". Basically this was a $14 billion giveaway for all of Clinton's pals in the inner cities. We needed it to stimulate the economy, even though it was "Happy days are here again". The Republicans stopped that non-sense and nobody suffered for it.
As I read these conflicting views about the economy I wondered if I had landed in the pages of "1984". "We have always been a war with East Asia..."
We saw the same thing in 2000. There is some agency or group which determines what is and isn't a recession. According to them the recession of 2001 began during the last months of Clinton's second term.
No lie, the Dot Com bubble was bursting. We had a Dot com bubble because the Fed started inflating harder in 1995. Fed inflation makes bond yields go down. So people had to go into stocks to earn interest.
Clinton played political games with Asian currencies (especially Thailand) at about the same time. Asian investors dumped their money into the US stock market to keep their money safe. Money poured into the stock market. Thanks to the DOT Com hype people sunk money into those stocks.
The Internet was the New Frontier. Clinton's Labor Secretary talked about the "New Economy". The Democrats were at the vanguard a new future where everyone would work harder and smarter and have more "quality time". Meanwhile on the stock market some companies had price to earnings ratios of over 400 to one. Others never paid a cent in earnings.
The GOP controlled Congress kicked back. Why fight the system when you can enjoy it? Bridges to Nowhere any one?
Eventually the smart money figured it was crazy to buy stocks in companies which never paid any dividends. Asian countries got back on their feet and investors took their money home, quite possible to build factories to sell Americans things.
Companies which never paid out, which spent investor money on lavish bonuses and expenses, lost market value. Many were shaky and went belly up.
All of Clinton's chatter about the "New Economy" would later be proven to be non-sense. We were more productive because we worked harder, because MBAs were constantly "downsizing". Moreover companies were outsourcing so they were cutting costs, which made them seem more productive.
So when the Bubble Burst it wasn't Clinton's fault, no sir. You wouldn't have known we were in recession from Media reports. Things were going great, and would continue going great, if Al Gore won. When Gore failed to steal the election the Dot Com bubble burst became Bush's fault.
It's always been Bush's fault. No doubt anything for the next ten years will be Bush's fault. As long as Americans keep thinking that they have rights to property and to think for themselves, rather than letting Philosopher Kings and Queens dictate to them what cars they will drive, how they will make love, how they will raise their kids and how many squares of toilet paper to use for each bathroom session it will be Bush's fault.
I guess the moral of the story is not to pay too much attention to the Media. They wouldn't know the Truth if it bit 'em on the backside.
Gene
