Give me a break on Bush's economic growth

[Bottomfeeder 244]

There has been a lot of discussion about whether they do or they don’t. All presidents want to brag about their policies growing the economy, lowering unemployment and creating jobs. I thought it would be interesting to compare their four-year terms, one against the other to see if there was much difference between them.

I went back to the time Truman took office in 1949 for a couple of reasons. First, prior to then there were two world wars and a world depression. Since 1949 this have not been disrupted, world wide, to the same extent. Second, there is a lot more economic information on the web for that time frame.

Bush’s numbers generally are better this past year so I’ve calculated his first four years then, dropping the first year, and calculated his last four years so there are two entries for Bush 43.

Gross Domestic Product>From this web site:

http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/gdplev.xls

Four-year growth in GDP in descending order.

21.81% _ Johnson

21.00% _ Truman

19.86% _ Kennedy/Johnson

17.87% _ Clinton (2nd)

15.98% _ Reagan (2nd)

13.67% _ Carter

13.53% _ Clinton (1st)

13.45% _ Eisenhower (1st)

12.54% _ Bush 43 (Last 4 Yrs)

12.38% _ Nixon

10.91% _ Eisenhower (2nd)

10.62% _ Nixon/Ford

09.56% _ Bush 43 (First 4 Yrs)

08.81% _ Bush 41

Unemployment Rate>From this web site:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?blsSeries Id: LNS14000000

The movement of the Unemployment Rate over a four-year period. (A negative number means unemployment went down by that amount)

In descending order:The Unemployment Rate went down during these four-year time frames.

-2.0 _ Clinton (1st)

-1.9 _ Reagan (2nd)

-1.7 _ Kennedy/Johnson

-1.5 _ Johnson

-1.4 _ Truman

-1.1 _ Clinton (2nd)

-0.2 _ Reagan (1st)

Carter had the same rate when he left as when he came.

0.0 _ Carter

The Unemployment Rate went up during these four-year time frames.

0.5 _ Bush 43 (Last 4 Yrs)

1.0 _ Bush 43 (First 4 Yrs)

1.3 _ Eisenhower (1st)

1.5 _ Nixon

1.9 _ Bush 41

2.4 _ Eisenhower (2nd)

2.6 _ Nixon/Ford

Job Creation>From this web site:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?blsSeries Id: CES0000000001

Percentage of jobs created over their four year term.In descending order:

16.54% _ Johnson

12.81% _ Carter

12.24% _ Truman

11.19% _ Reagan (2nd)

10.99% _ Kennedy/Johnson

10.49% _ Clinton (1st)

09.27% _ Clinton (2nd)

08.90% _ Nixon

06.71% _ Nixon/Ford

05.85% _ Reagan (1st)

05.47% _ Eisenhower (1st)

03.03% _ Bush 43 (Last 4 Yrs)

02.42% _ Bush 41

01.50% _ Eisenhower (2nd)

00.00% _ Bush 43 (First 4 Yrs)

Recessions>From this web site:

http://www.nber.org/cycles.html/

Number of recessions in ascending order:

0 _ Truman

0 _ Kennedy/Johnson

0 _ Johnson

0 _ Reagan (2nd)

0 _ Clinton (1st)

0 _ Clinton (2nd)

1 _ Eisenhower (1st)

1 _ Nixon

1 _ Nixon/Ford

1 _ Carter

1 _ Reagan (1st)

1 _ Bush 41

1 _ Bush 43

2 _ Eisenhower (2nd)

Whether it’s talent or luck, some were consistently better than others.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Cherry pick what you want, most economist agree this is a solid, strong economy

[Bottomfeeder 244]

I hope so

[Tigermike 3,052]

There is little doubt that you will believe anyone here and doubtful that you will believe anything at the link below. But try the link and take a look at the information.

Granted if you are out of work the economy is on a fast plane headed to the South Pole or at least Argentina. But just give the link a try.

Link

[BamaGrad03 0]

Hmmm...

Dow is over 11,000

Unemployment rate is amazingly low

Bush took the internet bust and 9/11 on the chin and the economy is flat out rolling.

Just think where we'd be if energy prices werent so high.

[vatz22au 142]

A working economy? Yes

A strong economy?