FACTS on Dubya's great recession

[jasonnfree]

…

When regulators finally decided to act, it was too late:

dear, Fed Fanny Fred FHA CRA SEC FDIC etc etc were soviet regulating all the time. What planet have you been on?

That's what I've been meaning to ask you Ed. What planet were you on the last several months.

 

[Toro]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

 

[Faun]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

 

[edthecynic]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

The Carter "recession" was the shortest in history and ended 6 months before St Ronnie took over. The UE Reagan inherited was steady at 7.5%. In fact, at the "peak" of the Carter recession the UE was 7.8%. St Ronnie managed to jack the UE up to 10.8% by the end of 1982 all on his own. Funny thing is the Right still blame Reagan's 10.8% UE on Carter who was out of office almost 2 years but say you can't blame Bush for anything past Jan 2007. The Recession Reagan created was the longest since the Great Depression.

 

[Toro]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

 

[Toro]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

The Carter "recession" was the shortest in history and ended 6 months before St Ronnie took over. The UE Reagan inherited was steady at 7.5%. In fact, at the "peak" of the Carter recession the UE was 7.8%. St Ronnie managed to jack the UE up to 10.8% by the end of 1982 all on his own. Funny thing is the Right still blame Reagan's 10.8% UE on Carter who was out of office almost 2 years but say you can't blame Bush for anything past Jan 2007. The Recession Reagan created was the longest since the Great Depression.

I don't blame 10% unemployment on Obama any more than I blame 10% unemployment on Reagan. Nor do I blame the shallower recovery under Obama compared to Reagan primarily on Obama.

Those who have a deeper understanding of how the economy works beyond shallow partisanship realize that economies don't turn around on a dime. Both Reagan and Obama faced extraordinarily difficult situations.

To imply that Reagan didn't inherit a difficult economy simply because it wasn't in a technical recession is just silly partisan nonsense knowledgeable people don't take seriously.

 

[edthecynic]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

But the mess St Ronnie inherited was created by Nixon and was the same mess Carter inherited. Carter did not make it worse before he passed it to Reagan. Reagan made it the worst recession since the Great Depression completely on his own.

 

[Toro]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

But the mess St Ronnie inherited was created by Nixon and was the same mess Carter inherited. Carter did not make it worse before he passed it to Reagan. Reagan made it the worst recession since the Great Depression completely on his own.

The inflation of the 1970s started in the 1960s under LBJ with war spending and the Great Society, as well as weak policy responses by the Federal Reserve.

Carter inherited a mess but his policy responses were weak, and the economy was in worse shape when he left office than when he took office. But I do give him credit for appointing Paul Volcker, the greatest central banker of the Fed, ever. Volcker gets a lot of credit for the economic growth of the 1980s.

 

[Faun]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

My post, in context, did no such thing. My post was a response to the lunacy that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Bush left for Obama.

 

[Toro]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

My post, in context, did no such thing. My post was a response to the lunacy that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Bush left for Obama.

Up until 1980, the economy was in worse shape than it had been at any time since the Great Depression.

I would agree that the recession in 2008 was worse, but it's not lunacy to think the second worse recession was terrifically better than the worst recession. Both were very bad, and different. In 1980, we inherited an inflation that we had never experienced in the history of the nation, before or since. We even invented a new word for it - "stagflation."

The reason why Reagan was elected and there was a global move towards the Right was because Keynesianism was blamed for the economy, and voters wanted to try something new.

 

[edthecynic]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

But the mess St Ronnie inherited was created by Nixon and was the same mess Carter inherited. Carter did not make it worse before he passed it to Reagan. Reagan made it the worst recession since the Great Depression completely on his own.

The inflation of the 1970s started in the 1960s under LBJ with war spending and the Great Society, as well as weak policy responses by the Federal Reserve.

Carter inherited a mess but his policy responses were weak, and the economy was in worse shape when he left office than when he took office. But I do give him credit for appointing Paul Volcker, the greatest central banker of the Fed, ever. Volcker gets a lot of credit for the economic growth of the 1980s.

And normally when there is inflation the Fed tightens the money supply, but Nixon insisted on the Fed easing the money supply to guarantee his reelection. And in typical "Tricky Dicky" fashion he manipulated his Fed appointee Burns into easing the money supply even though he was against it. It was Nixon who made the economy worse and sent inflation out of control, not Carter.

More Politics At The Fed National Review Online

The classic case of the Fed subordinating good policy to politics was in 1972. Richard Nixon was acutely aware that Fed tightening in late 1959 brought on a recession that began in April 1960. As the nominee of the incumbent party, Nixon took the blame for slow growth. In his book Six Crises, he complained bitterly that the Fed had, in effect, thrown the election to John F. Kennedy, whose most potent campaign pledge was that he would get the economy moving again.
When Nixon became president in 1968, he vowed that he would not let the Fed do it to him again. At his earliest opportunity, he appointed a trusted aide, Arthur Burns, to the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. His job was to make sure that money and credit stayed easy through the 1972 election.

However, Nixon did not want to take any chances. He ordered White House staffers to keep an eye on Burns and push him to err on the side of monetary ease. According to William Safire, a White House aide at the time (in his book Before the Fall), when Burns resisted pressure to guarantee full employment in time for the election, negative press stories about Burns were planted in newspapers. A plan to dilute the Federal Reserve Board’s power was also floated. In his book Secrets of the Temple, William Greider says the tactics were crude, but successful.

The problem was inflation. It jumped to 6.2 percent in 1969 after having been in the 1 to 2 percent range for many years. In essence, the inflation rate had tripled in a very short period of time. The recession, which began in December 1969 and ended in November 1970, brought it down only very little — to 5.6 percent in 1970.

Under normal circumstances, the Fed would have tightened monetary policy to bring down inflation. But Nixon wanted to keep monetary policy loose in order to make sure the economy was robust going into the election. This led to the imposition of wage and price controls in August 1971. While everyone knew they would not work for long, the controls reduced inflation enough to keep monetary policy expansive through November 1972, which was all that mattered.

In his book Nixon’s Economy, historian Allen Matusow wrote, “Burns had offered Nixon an implicit bargain. In 1971 Nixon controlled prices, and in 1972 Burns supplied money by the bushel. The policy helped reelect the president but also assured the next cycle of boom and bust.”

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

My post, in context, did no such thing. My post was a response to the lunacy that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Bush left for Obama.

Up until 1980, the economy was in worse shape than it had been at any time since the Great Depression.

I would agree that the recession in 2008 was worse, but it's not lunacy to think the second worse recession was terrifically better than the worst recession. Both were very bad, and different. In 1980, we inherited an inflation that we had never experienced in the history of the nation, before or since. We even invented a new word for it - "stagflation."

The reason why Reagan was elected and there was a global move towards the Right was because Keynesianism was blamed for the economy, and voters wanted to try something new.

Yes Keynes, flaming liberal like Krugman, more than anyone is responsible for the earths recent economic problems. Easy money and budget deficits were his stock in trade. Before, in fact right through FDR's election, gold backed money and balanced budgets were the norm. Sadly, we haven't learned the lesson. Inflation and deficits are still legal everywhere and so we still have huge economic problems that could easily be eliminated.

 

[Dad2three]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

01/1981 - Unemployment rate 7.5% …. Reagan sworn in.
02/1981 - 7.4%
03/1981 - 7.4%
04/1981 - 7.2%
05/1981 - 7.5%
06/1981 - 7.5%
07/1981 - 7.2%
08/1981 - 7.4% * Reagan CUTS taxes for top 1% and says unemployment will DROP to 6.9%.
09/1981 - 7.6%
10/1981 - 7.9%
11/1981 - 8.3%
12/1981 - 8.5%

01/1982 - 8.6%
02/1982 - 8.9%
03/1982 - 9.0%
04/1982 - 9.3%
05/1982 - 9.4%
06/1982 - 9.6%
07/1982 - 9.8%
08/1982 - 9.8%
09/1982 - 10.1%
10/1982 - 10.4%
11/1982 - 10.8% * Unemployment HITS a post WW2 RECORD of 10.8%.
12/1982 - 10.8%

01/1983 - 10.4%
02/1983 - 10.4%
03/1983 - 10.3%
04/1983 - 10.3%
05/1983 - 10.1%
06/1983 - 10.1%
07/1983 - 9.4%
06/1983 - 9.5%
07/1983 - 9.4%
08/1983 - 9.5%
09/1983 - 9.2%
10/1983 - 8.8%
11/1983 - 8.5%
12/1983 - 8.3%

01/1984 - 8.0%
02/1984 - 7.8%


It took Reagan 28 MONTHS to get unemployment rate back down below 8 percent.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data


Reagan created the recession began under HIM after his disastrous tax cuts.


Supply Side Economics


Supply side did not work under reagan nor bush.the worse recession happened under REAGAN not Carter.sure he picked up the economy after he trashed it.
\

 

[Dad2three]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

But the mess St Ronnie inherited was created by Nixon and was the same mess Carter inherited. Carter did not make it worse before he passed it to Reagan. Reagan made it the worst recession since the Great Depression completely on his own.

The inflation of the 1970s started in the 1960s under LBJ with war spending and the Great Society, as well as weak policy responses by the Federal Reserve.

Carter inherited a mess but his policy responses were weak, and the economy was in worse shape when he left office than when he took office. But I do give him credit for appointing Paul Volcker, the greatest central banker of the Fed, ever. Volcker gets a lot of credit for the economic growth of the 1980s.

How about Nixon's wage and price controls, the ones Ford kept? And OPEC? LOL

Carter 1977

Jan 7.5%
Feb 7.6
March 7.4
April 7.2
May 7.0
June 7.2
July 6.9
Aug 7.0
Sept 6.8
Oct 6.8
Nov 6.8
Dec 6.4

1978
Jan 6.4
Feb 6.3
March 6.3
Apr 6.1
May 6.0
Jun 5.9
July 6.2
Aug 5.9
Sep 6.0
Oct 5.8
Nov 5.9
Dec 6.0

1979
Jan 5.9
Feb 5.9
Mar 5.8
Apr 5.8
May 5.6
Jun 5.7
Jul 5.7
Aug 6.0
Sept 5.9
Oct 6.0
Nov 5.9
Dec 6.0

1980
Jan 6.3
Feb 6.3
Mar 6.3
Apr 6.9
May 7.5
Jun 7.6
Jul 7.8
Aug 7.7
Sept 7.5
Oct 7.5
Nov 7.5
Dec 7.2

01/1981 - Unemployment rate 7.5% …. Reagan sworn in.
02/1981 - 7.4%
03/1981 - 7.4%
04/1981 - 7.2%
05/1981 - 7.5%
06/1981 - 7.5%
07/1981 - 7.2%
08/1981 - 7.4% * Reagan CUTS taxes for top 1% and says unemployment will DROP to 6.9%.
09/1981 - 7.6%
10/1981 - 7.9%
11/1981 - 8.3%
12/1981 - 8.5%

01/1982 - 8.6%
02/1982 - 8.9%
03/1982 - 9.0%
04/1982 - 9.3%
05/1982 - 9.4%
06/1982 - 9.6%
07/1982 - 9.8%
08/1982 - 9.8%
09/1982 - 10.1%
10/1982 - 10.4%
11/1982 - 10.8% * Unemployment HITS a post WW2 RECORD of 10.8%.
12/1982 - 10.8%

01/1983 - 10.4%
02/1983 - 10.4%
03/1983 - 10.3%
04/1983 - 10.3%
05/1983 - 10.1%
06/1983 - 10.1%
07/1983 - 9.4%
06/1983 - 9.5%
07/1983 - 9.4%
08/1983 - 9.5%
09/1983 - 9.2%
10/1983 - 8.8%
11/1983 - 8.5%
12/1983 - 8.3%

01/1984 - 8.0%
02/1984 - 7.8%


It took Reagan 28 MONTHS to get unemployment rate back down below 8 percent.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data


AGAIN, CARTER HAD 9+ MILLION PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS GROWTH IN 4 YEARS VERSUS 14 MILLION FOR REAGAN'S 8

Jan 1979 65,636,000
Jan 1981 74,677,000

INCREASE OF 9,041,000 Total private IN 4 YEARS

Jan 1981 74,677,000
Jan 1989 89,394,000

14,717,00 Total private IN 8 YEARS

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

 

[Dad2three]

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

My post, in context, did no such thing. My post was a response to the lunacy that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Bush left for Obama.

Up until 1980, the economy was in worse shape than it had been at any time since the Great Depression.

I would agree that the recession in 2008 was worse, but it's not lunacy to think the second worse recession was terrifically better than the worst recession. Both were very bad, and different. In 1980, we inherited an inflation that we had never experienced in the history of the nation, before or since. We even invented a new word for it - "stagflation."

The reason why Reagan was elected and there was a global move towards the Right was because Keynesianism was blamed for the economy, and voters wanted to try something new.

Yes Keynes, flaming liberal like Krugman, more than anyone is responsible for the earths recent economic problems. Easy money and budget deficits were his stock in trade. Before, in fact right through FDR's election, gold backed money and balanced budgets were the norm. Sadly, we haven't learned the lesson. Inflation and deficits are still legal everywhere and so we still have huge economic problems that could easily be eliminated.

Weird how YOU can be sooooo wrong on sooooo many subjects so consistently, almost like you've had a lobotomy

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Supply side did not work under reagan nor bush.the worse recession happened under REAGAN not Carter.sure he picked up the economy after he trashed it.
\

dear, supply side always works. We got from the stone age to here as conditions were right for Republican capitalists to invent and supply the goods and services necessary.

America is the richest because it had the most supply side capitalism.

Reagan was most concerned with winning cold war, not the economy. In any case that economy was mostly a function of the Fed's 20% interest rates and subsequent extremely tight money and the recession it necessarily caused. Pretending it was a supply side experiment is idiotic.

Sorry to rock your world!

 

[westwall]

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

But the mess St Ronnie inherited was created by Nixon and was the same mess Carter inherited. Carter did not make it worse before he passed it to Reagan. Reagan made it the worst recession since the Great Depression completely on his own.

No, it was Carters policies that drove the interest rates up to the 17% mark. It was impossible for a middle class family to buy a house during those years, EVERYTHING cost more and the sense of malaise was palpable. You're not old enough to remember it but it was a really sucky time for almost everyone. The super rich did great, they could afford to buy things because they didn't need to borrow any money so they were the only buyers out there.

 

[Toro]

There were recessions months before and months after Reagan was sworn in. Even though we weren't technically in a recession when Reagan was sworn in, we had sky-high inflation and unemployment. At the time, the economy was generally agreed to have been in the worst shape since the Depression.

Yeah, so? That doesn't make the economy in January, 1981 worse than the economy in January, 2009.

And by the way, the sky-high unemployment rate in January, 1981 was 7.5%. It was 7.8% (and climbing) in January, 2009.

And again, Obama inherited a recession, Reagan did not. There is no way in hell any lucid individual can argue that Reagan inherited an economy worse than what Obama inherited.

I'm not arguing that Reagan's economy was worse.

What I'm saying is that Reagan inherited a difficult mess. Your post implied that he did not because "it wasn't a recession." Simply because it wasn't technically in recession doesn't mean the economy wasn't terrible. It was.

But the mess St Ronnie inherited was created by Nixon and was the same mess Carter inherited. Carter did not make it worse before he passed it to Reagan. Reagan made it the worst recession since the Great Depression completely on his own.

The inflation of the 1970s started in the 1960s under LBJ with war spending and the Great Society, as well as weak policy responses by the Federal Reserve.

Carter inherited a mess but his policy responses were weak, and the economy was in worse shape when he left office than when he took office. But I do give him credit for appointing Paul Volcker, the greatest central banker of the Fed, ever. Volcker gets a lot of credit for the economic growth of the 1980s.

And normally when there is inflation the Fed tightens the money supply, but Nixon insisted on the Fed easing the money supply to guarantee his reelection. And in typical "Tricky Dicky" fashion he manipulated his Fed appointee Burns into easing the money supply even though he was against it. It was Nixon who made the economy worse and sent inflation out of control, not Carter.

More Politics At The Fed National Review Online

The classic case of the Fed subordinating good policy to politics was in 1972. Richard Nixon was acutely aware that Fed tightening in late 1959 brought on a recession that began in April 1960. As the nominee of the incumbent party, Nixon took the blame for slow growth. In his book Six Crises, he complained bitterly that the Fed had, in effect, thrown the election to John F. Kennedy, whose most potent campaign pledge was that he would get the economy moving again.
When Nixon became president in 1968, he vowed that he would not let the Fed do it to him again. At his earliest opportunity, he appointed a trusted aide, Arthur Burns, to the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. His job was to make sure that money and credit stayed easy through the 1972 election.

However, Nixon did not want to take any chances. He ordered White House staffers to keep an eye on Burns and push him to err on the side of monetary ease. According to William Safire, a White House aide at the time (in his book Before the Fall), when Burns resisted pressure to guarantee full employment in time for the election, negative press stories about Burns were planted in newspapers. A plan to dilute the Federal Reserve Board’s power was also floated. In his book Secrets of the Temple, William Greider says the tactics were crude, but successful.

The problem was inflation. It jumped to 6.2 percent in 1969 after having been in the 1 to 2 percent range for many years. In essence, the inflation rate had tripled in a very short period of time. The recession, which began in December 1969 and ended in November 1970, brought it down only very little — to 5.6 percent in 1970.

Under normal circumstances, the Fed would have tightened monetary policy to bring down inflation. But Nixon wanted to keep monetary policy loose in order to make sure the economy was robust going into the election. This led to the imposition of wage and price controls in August 1971. While everyone knew they would not work for long, the controls reduced inflation enough to keep monetary policy expansive through November 1972, which was all that mattered.

In his book Nixon’s Economy, historian Allen Matusow wrote, “Burns had offered Nixon an implicit bargain. In 1971 Nixon controlled prices, and in 1972 Burns supplied money by the bushel. The policy helped reelect the president but also assured the next cycle of boom and bust.”

That's all true.

However, it started under LBJ, and he did the same thing. At his retreat in Texas, LBJ reportedly confronted the Chairman of the Fed (I forget his name ATM), and demanded he cut rates, saying he needed it because he had kids dying in Vietnam and didn't want a recession. The story has it that LBJ threw the Fed Chair against then pinned him to the wall while he demanded it, though I don't know if that was ever confirmed. Fears of government spending also caused the stock market into a bear market in 1966 as investors were worried that government spending would crowd out private investment.

Inflation doesn't happen over night. It takes a while to build. And it began to build in the 60s under LBJ.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Yeah, interest rates when Obama were just awful when he took over.

Reagan had it easy there.

I love the meme that Obama had it worse.

And yet, the economy Obama inherited was far worse than what Reagan inherited. Hell, we weren't even in a recession when Reagan became president.

No it wasn't.

The economy suffered a meltdown, but has recovered. Obama notwithstanding.

If Obama had had Reagan's interest rates, it's not clear we would have survived.

Obama is fast becoming a pariah in his own party. Nobody seems to want him around when they campaign.

Go sell stupid elsewhere.

The leading indicator of the economy is GDP

GDP:
Q4-1980: +7.6
Q4-2008: -8.3

The second leading indicator of the economy is unemployment
U3 UE:
01/1981: 7.5%
01/2009: 7.8% (and rising)

And lastly, the economy Bush handed Obama was in recession; the economy Carter handed Reagan was not.

You bet.....

Things were rocking and rolling when Reagan took over for a first time Carter (IOW....we threw his ass out).

His own misery index was used to crush him.

Obama got handed a constipated credit system.

Reagan suffered from very high interest rates (which had to go higher to stem so many of the issues Carter had generated).

Sell stupid ?

You mean you buy stupid ?

Thought so.

BTW: If Dudpeepee reads this, I know you are posting based on the thread history, but you are on ignore....so I am sure you are posting your usual three pages of crap....keep it up. Maybe someone else will read it and care if you are still breathing tomorrow.

Again ... Obama inherited an economy in recession ... Reagan did not. You lost this one, accept it.

actually Reagan inherited 20% interest rates and inflation. Then, The Fed caused a recession to combat the liberal inflation. As a president, having to start by causing a recession is the worst of all possible worlds in which to start your administration . Stupid liberals try to take advantage not knowing that the president is not the government.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Inflation doesn't happen over night. It takes a while to build. And it began to build in the 60s under LBJ.

Keynes was bad enough, yes the 60's was bad with LBJ, and then Nixon cut the link to gold really setting the stage for floating exchange rates and long term poor economic performance.

The simple solution to all the world's economic problems is to make inflation and deficits illegal, and free trade mandatory.