....according to this article in Forbes Magazine, not exactly a left wing rag. http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/09/05/obama-outperforms-reagan-on-jobs-growth-and-investing/ Some interesting contentions made by the author here, including those regarding "actual unemployment".
I agree, for the most part. I just find this interesting considering the continuous declarations by a number of conservatives, including a decent number on this board, that we are headed for the economic abyss any day now because of Obama's policies, plus the article coming from a business oriented magazine.
A) this guy is one of Forbes liberal bloggers B) he ignores the fact that middle class wages dramatically increased under Reagan and are down under Obama. C) ignores the fact that the unemployment rate is calculated differently today and is artificially low.
How, in your opinion, is B) to Reagan's credit and Obama's fault? C) and B) is why I felt like it was apples and oranges.
Ignores much. The GDP growth under Reagan was extreme. He used debt to do it but created grounds for much modern investing. Obama used debt for...employment growth via govt jobs? Unemployment numbers aren't comparable but the market has performed well. Reagan had to spend time bursting a bubble and then start, losing a couple years. Obama didn't and has do e squat for GDP. I'll be surprised with the number of people who buy it.
This is the question. Why is either receiving tremendous credit. Reagan pushed an independence culture while Obama has pushed govt solutions. That's the glaring difference. Private sector job creation is an interesting look.
I fully believe a major reason why there isn't ample labor demand is that corporations view the administration as anti business. I'm not going to say I have ton Fortune 500 execs as clients, but the ones I do have told me repeatably that they don't want to take the risk of hiring because of Obama
I'm dumb: how is average wages and hiring linked? From competition for good labor? Because I think you yourself have made arguments concerning technology suppressing the value of employees.
Also a sense of hope and belief in the future of American under Reagan that just doesn't exist under Obama. People are expecting the next shoe to drop
I think wages have been flat for 15 years because of international competition, but I do believe Obama being seen as anti business and things like Obamacare have led to people spending money on technology and hiring part time rather than full time like they would have done otherwise. And the unemployment rate doesn't measure underemployment
People are significantly more cynical now than they were in the 80s and that resulted independently of any one particular political figure (or concurrently with a myriad of politicians). I still consider Reagan a huge fraud of a president, holding his successor in much greater esteem, and the phoniness of the Reagan decade will relegate Reagan to an indifferent status in history. Although, to be fair, I don't see many presidents within my lifetime to stand out as great figures of historical prominence.
He also steered us through two of our most critical time periods, while creating a dramatically different role for the presidency and government. There's no way he isn't getting pub when they discuss our republic. Reagan's role in the history books may last a paragraph or two, noting his ushering in of the conservatism of the 80s, but I am still of the opinion that he will be somewhere along the lines of a William McKinley in the coming decades. Also, in regards to hope, Reagan's administration certainly faded to a less than hopeful tune.
[video=youtube;YtYdjbpBk6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtYdjbpBk6A[/video] How has his administrated faded?
perhaps people are more cynical for a reason. the 80s saw a dramatic increase in wages for americans and employment. of course it's going to be remembered fondly compared to this shit period.
wait a minute so Reagan created 16 million new jobs and Obama 5 million despite the labor market being 30 percent larger today and that's an outperformance? wtf? I didn't realize this idiot was solely basing this on the unemployment rate and consecutive months of jobs growth.