Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The President Might Be Right

A while back, President Obama touted the economic recovery on his watch:

Political candidates who are telling voters that the economy is bad are living in an "alternative reality," President Obama said Friday.

Touting the jobs report Friday morning that showed relatively strong growth, Obama accused people skeptical of the economy of engaging in "fantasy."

Well, Bernie Sanders is one of those candidates.

And there is one liberal writer, at least, who starts with the assumption that the president denies.

But I can't rule out that the president is right. Lord knows I'm not going to start taking economic lessons from a self-identified socialist, now am I?

Sure, labor force participation rates are much lower, making the unemployment rate perhaps artificially low.

And wage growth seems stagnant.

And the GDP growth has been painfully slow with no rapid take-off like other recoveries--and yes, I understand that banking-induced recessions take longer to escape, but it's been over 7 years since then.

And let's not even mention the huge increase in the national debt only masked by the artificially low interest rates that push down what we pay to borrow.

I just doesn't seem like a recovery.

But during the Bush 43 years, I scratched my head as the Left aggressively said the economy was doing poorly despite what seemed like good statistics for growth and employment.

Since economics is outside of my lane, I can't rule out the possibility that our economy is doing alright.