How has the Obama Administration Affected the U.S. Economy?
It seems that everyone has an opinion concerning the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION and the impact that it has had on the economy. The problem with the vast majority of the opinions floating around is that they are heavily biased on one side or the other. Very rarely is an opinion given on an administration’s impact on any topic that is not influenced by the conservative or liberal biases of the person or group offering the opinion. When approaching the monumental task of evaluating the current administration’s impact on the economy, it must be done by giving equal consideration to the interests and perspectives of both sides.
The Inheritance
One of the first things that must be considered is the shape the economy when President Obama took control of the Government. There is no question that when President Obama took office that America was on the heels of the greatest economic collapse in almost 80 years. Where the numbers will probably not make sense to the average person, the following concept may. Anytime that there is an economic shift at the magnitude of the financial crisis of 2007, the ramifications will reverberate for a significant amount of time afterward.
According to a report issued by Politifact, an organization that presents itself as a non-biased collector of economic data, reveals that the economy was in trouble when President Obama took office, and that the economy worsened the first two years that he was in office. Since 2011, the economic numbers have slowly improved, but they have not returned to what they were when the President first took office.
Unemployment is up a little over three percent from five percent in 2008. The groups that have suffered most are the ones that were hoping to gain the greatest benefit by electing President Obama, African Americans and Hispanics. The unemployment rate for African Americans was 13.6 at the time this report was issued. That is up from nine percent in 2008, but down from its highest point of 16.5 in 2010. The Hispanic unemployment rate was 11 percent – down from its highest point of 12.6 percent in 2010 but well over its lowest point of 6.5 in 2008. The trends seen in unemployment are indicative of most of the economic indicators revealed in this report. Things were at their worst in 2010, but they are steadily improving.
This report can be summarized as follows:
- The rate of poverty, food stamps use, gasoline prices and federal debt are all worse today that they were when President Obama took office.
- Personal income, stock market and the unemployment rate all turned worse after his election, but they are all improving now.
- Mortgage rates, the level of consumer debt and corporate profits have all improved under the current administration.
If you want to see how these numbers can be skewed by a biased point of view, visit sites that are taking either political perspective and notice how they play with the facts to make their points. You can examine an entire PDF report from the Obama camp explaining the many accomplishments that President Obama claims to have made. On the flip-side, you can get the conservative point of view by examining a report published by Real Clear Politics that claims that President Obama’s policies have crushed the economy. The OBAMA ADMINISTRATION has had its hiccups and its failures, but the economy has steadily improved over the last three years.
See more on this topic here, “Economically, Obama is the best president“.
