Posted on 06/20/2011 4:52:23 PM PDT by Kaslin
t has become a common refrain at the White House and among administration supporters that President Obama's aggressive efforts to stimulate growth prevented an economic catastrophe.
"We had to hit the ground running and do everything we could to prevent a second Great Depression," Obama told supporters last week.
Politically, the claim makes sense. Casting the challenge Obama faced as immense can help explain the economy's lackluster performance in the two years since the recession officially ended.
But is it an accurate portrayal of what really happened?
IBD reviewed records of economic forecasts made just before Obama signed the stimulus bill into law, as well as economic data and monthly stimulus spending data from around that time, and reviews of the stimulus bill itself.
The conclusion is that in claiming to have staved off a Depression, the White House and its supporters seem to be engaging in a bit of historical revisionism.
Economists weren't predicting a Depression.
White House economists forecast in January 2009 that, even without a stimulus, unemployment would top out at just 8.8% — well below the 10.8% peak during the 1981-82 recession, and nowhere near Depression-era unemployment levels.
The same month, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that, absent any stimulus, the recession would end in "the second half of 2009." The recession officially ended in June 2009, suggesting that the stimulus did not have anything to do with it.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I’ve been greatly depressed since the day he was elected!
How can this claim even be made because the calculations for unemployment changed radically in 1994?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43395857
Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI&feature=player_embedded
In this fascinating speech, economist Thomas Woods explains why you've never heard of the Depression of 1920. Because it was over within a year, as the government let it run its course.
That may well be the case. I hope not. Most in this forum don't have clue.
He hasn’t prevented one, but, he is damn sure going to cause one. In fact, it is well on its way at this time. The parasites that voted for him are going o be in trouble when the producers do not have any money for the Government to steal for them. It is going to get rough but the producers will mostly survive. obama’s parasites will not.
He is doing it with a Public Private Partnership. What a disaster.
Utter nonsense.
No, these companies were NOT "Too Big to Fail" but they most definitely were and are too big to DIE. A pre-packaged bankruptcy should have been the process and anyone who thinks that the results from that would have been no GM or Chrysler is dumb enough to vote for Obama a second time. This most definitely includes all of the UAW hierarchy that would otherwise have been presiding over a much smaller base (and probably pulling strike after strike on the new auto companies.)
WikiAnswers:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_unemployment_rate_during_the_Great_Depression
“What was the unemployment rate during the Great Depression?
Current unemployment numbers would be between 5 percent to 10 percent higher if calculated in the same way as in the past; conversely, the numbers from the 1930s and 1940s would be 5 percent to 10 percent lower if calculated using our contemporary methods.”
Now that is just about an even trade off... and even if the Great Depression had say 5 percent (or a bit) more unemployed at the peak in 1933... and we are still bleeding jobs at an accelerated rate... if we are not already there... we are certainly pulling into the station.
LLS
This is a solvency crisis. This wasn’t a liquidity crisis, though the government treated it like one.
LMAO!!
That communist p.o.s. caused the current Greater Depression.
You said it.
What a joke! The Obama administration has NOT saved anyway from anything.
What a joke! The Obama administration has NOT saved anyone from anything.
Sure — and it was all the result of that inspired stroke of genius “Cash for Clunkers”.
“Why You’ve Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920”
My dad told me about it he was 2 years out of high school and had a good job.
A full blown depression is exactly what we need now!!!
We are in a 2nd great depression. It just takes a long time to run its course so a lot of people don’t recognize it. Among those who don’t recognizes it are most economists who should recognize it.
I got thuh O-ba-ma blooooooooz
No.
If anything, Obama and his stimulus bills have just made it worse and prolonged it.
The previous administrations didn’t help either. Every 10 or 20 years somebody gets it into their head that they’ve figured out how to get around economic principles and then economic cycles reassert themselves with a vengeance.
I’m sure the Ivy League “elite” and government types decided “Central planning failed because of the inability to collect timely statistics, but now we have computers...”
Why doesn't some pundit ask Obama why he didn't save the jobs of those who lost them? "Saving" the jobs of those who are working is easy, just get out of the way.
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