I am watching Dick Gephardt on Meet the Press and he is currently criticizing the economy and blaming the President for the economic problems of the last several years. Without getting into the fact the recession started at the end of the Clinton administration (a fact, not a criticism of Clinton), I have to ask a question: are politicians (Reps and Dems) really so dense as to believe that as soon as a given president takes office, that he is responsible in all ways for the economy? Do they really think that a law here, a budget there, and one can either fix or break the complex nexus that is the US economy? Either they really don’t understand, or are banking on the fact that most Americans don’t understand. Neither option is all that flattering.
I am not arguing that policy makes no difference, but rather that 1) there is a substantial lag time for any policy to do good or ill to the economy, and that 2) for the most part, policy only affects the economy at the margins. If it were easy to create jobs and growth, we’d always have jobs and growth. Indeed, if a more vigorous government was all that was needed for economy largesse, then the Japanese and Europeans ought to be kicking our tails. However, that is hardly the case, see the Will column I noted below for some stats.
August 10th, 2024 at 10:30 am