By Mark Esposito, Weekend Blogger
In the red corner, wearing angelic white trunks trimmed in gold that darling of the Right, that Gipper of trickle-down economics, the Great Communicator himself, Ron–ald “The California Killer” Rea–gan.
And in the blue corner with black trunks trimmed in red, the “change” President, the foil of all things conservative, the first of firsts in American History, Bar–ack “Betcha Can’t Believe Where I’m From” O–Bam–a.
And today’s contest is a three-round fight for the World Super Heavyweight Economics Guru Belt. The format is a 10 point “must” system and you are the judges. I, your humble ring announcer, get a scorecard but it’s only advisory.
But first some background, both fighters weigh in after tangling with some decidedly tough contenders before this big bout. Reagan came into office with a much more serious recession than most on the Left give him credit for. In addition, he followed hot on the heels of what his predecessor called the great American “malaise.” Plus he had an adversarial relationship with the nation’s biggest rival, the Soviet Union.
Obama came into office with a war on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a massive recession, and a world-wide financial industry on the brink of collapse. Pretty tough contenders. Plus, he had and has a Congressional opposition party whose expressed goal was to make sure nothing he proposed made it into law. And law, as you know, is the political boxer’s stock-in-trade.
Ding— ding — ding.
Round 1: Jobs
Barack jabs with the fact that unemployment in the US in August stood at 6.1% that’s a full year faster than it took Reagan to reach the same level. And it’s now down to 5.9% a figure Reagan never achieved. Obama also uppercuts with the fact that the economy he presides over has created, on average, 200,000 new jobs every month for the past six. That puts Obama at a projected 2.5 million jobs created for FY 2014. Reagan counters that in first year in office, unemployment stood at around 10.5% or about a half to three-quarters of a point higher than Obama’s highest figure. Obama counters that initial claims for unemployment are at the lowest point since 2000. 2000!
Reagan dances. “But overall, jobs created while I was in office for the entire term totalled a net figure of 16.1 million. That’s about three times yours, so far, Barack.”
Here’s a graphic depiction of the two fighters comparing the unemployment rate during their first 67 months in office:
Announcer’s Scorecard: Reagan 10 – Obama 9
Round 2: Investor ROI
Reagan comes out strong in Round 2, hooking with the undeniable stat that a dollar invested in the Standard & Poors 500 Index of stocks in year one of his Presidency would have yielded a staggering 190% return on investment after 5.5 years — a record in American history. Reagan bores in saying he did it with tax cuts and government spending in defense and manufacturing sectors. Obama covers up, but is it rope-a-dope? Out of the corner, Obama right crosses that a dollar invested in that same S&P 500 Index during year 1 of his Presidency would yield a return of 220% in the same time frame and that the Dow stands at its highest level ever. And that translates into real dollars for non-passive investors (i.e., working everyday Americans) as 2/3 of Americans are invested in the market through their pensions or 401K plans.
Here’s the chart of ROI:
Your announcer scores it: Obama 10-Reagan 9
Round 3: Government Spending
Staggered but not out of it, Reagan thinks this round is his. He is after-all the supply side economics guy who cut government spending to boost an ailing economy and made all Republican economists sing with delight every time a tax is eliminated. Sort of like that tinkling bell in a Wonderful Life when an angel got it’s wings. Reagan hits hard with the fact that in “the first year of the Obama presidency … the federal budget increased a whopping 17.9%—going from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion.” And the ringside Reagan chanters keep up the mantra from ringside that it was due to the stimulus package.
Except … that every President’s first year budget is proposed and passed, not by his administration but by his predecessor in office and the Congress from the year before. In Obama’s case, George W. Bush passed the Obama’s first year budget and it is his deficit and spending priorities in that document. Thus, Obama’s 2009 budget belongs squarely to President George W. Bush and the 2008 Congress. “Well,” the Gipper says from his coverup crouch, “Obama must have continued the rate of spending to astronomical levels.”
Not exactly. Here is a bar Graph showing the rate of federal government spending under the past 5 US Presidents:
And add these punches to your ring scorecard:
Courtesy of Marketwatch–
- In fiscal 2010 (the first Obama budget) spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.
- In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.
- In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.
- Finally in fiscal 2013 — the final budget of Obama’s term — spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% to $3.58 trillion.
Your Announcer scores it Obama 10 – Reagan 8
And The Winner is:
Ok, now it’s up to you. Who is the best President you’ve seen on the economy out of the last five:
Sources: Forbes (Hartung article); Forbes (Ungar article)
~Mark Esposito, Weekend Blogger
By the way and for better or worse, the views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not necessarily those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays of art are solely the author’s decision and responsibility. No infringement of intellectual property rights is intended and will be remedied upon notice from the owner. Fair use is however asserted for such inclusions of quotes, excerpts, photos, art, and the like.
Squeeky:
There once was a girl who thought gold was a crime
The dollar debased and now she has egg on her face
And is pulling tricks for a dime.
DBQ–yes, actually, bartering is still very common across Appalachia.
SWM, going way up there, I do not know. Dave S makes a good point, and part of our dollar value goes to its reserve currency status. If that goes, so will the value. That’s why the BRICS are worrisome to the feds.
@DaveS
Thank you!!! I am glad you liked them. Here is one more that I did there on a Roubini article:
Pasta Time To Get Rid Of Gold???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
A really smart guy named Roubini,
Turned the Gold Bugs’ legs to linguini.
When he told them that Gold,
What’s you don’t want to hold,
When the rate of inflation is teeny.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Lol @ squeaky 😆
I disagree with you about gold, but funny none the less.
Oh, and plus this one which IIRC really irked the ZH commenters:
Circle Jerks???
A Three Stanza Irish Poem by
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Poor Melvin, a Gold Bug from Philly,
Complained that his critics were silly!
“Those Chinese and Thais,
And New Delhi guys
Will always want GOLD!”, he yelled shrilly!
Wang Chung, a Gold Merchant in Shanghai,
Purchased all of the Gold that he could buy.
“Some American twit
Will buy all this shit.
Always do, but I’m damned if I know why???”
It’s a Farce in this Absurd Theater
As they pass the hot golden potater
It’s just yen, and then yang,
And it tain’t no big thang. . .
Just two Fools seeing which one is Greater
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
As to squeaky’s poem, that’s a cute diddy that pretty accurately describes how gold was outlawed to protect the dollar. Perhaps I’ll use that one myself next time I read a Krugman piece about the joys of monetary expansion and financial repression.
It’s pretty easy to see why the Yen is crashing, Abe who is monetizing debt at unheard of levels is trying to bail out the Japanese govt. This is the same thing the Fed is doing, its a big con to save insolvent government. It has nothing to do with stimulating demand, except financial specualation and financialization, saying anything to the contrary I think is unrealistic.
Oh plus, I also did a Melvin poem there!
Common Cents???
An Epic Poem by
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Poor Melvin was in Georgia
Where on business he’d been sent.
His wallet had been stolen,
Lord, he didn’t have a cent.
But Melvin was a Gold Bug,
And he had a Krugerrand,
Tucked inside his loafers
‘Cause he liked it close at hand.
Off to the Piggly Wiggly
Melvin walked without a care.
After all, he had some gold
He’d buy some groceries there.
Melvin filled his grocery cart.
It came to just about
One hundred thirty dollars,
Melvin whipped his gold coin out.
He took his little pocket knife
And then shaved off a sliver.
Just about one tenth he thought,
And this he tried to give her.
But Lulubelle, the checkout girl
Was having none of that.
And thought perhaps he’d lingered
In the sun without a hat.
So Melvin gave the Gold Bug speech
About how Gold IS money.
But Lulu Belle, she called the cops,
Who did not think it funny.
“Boy, are you a Communist???”
“Or maybe just a freak???”
“A foreign agitator???”
Or a Yankee con man sneak???”
Sooo, Melvin tried to tell the cops,
About the price of Gold,
And how his little Krugerrand
Would pay his debt tenfold.
Now Melvin thought his logic
Would secure a quick release.
Instead they hustled him to see
The Justice of the Peace.
“Judge, we got this fellow here,
We don’t know what to do.
He’s got some kind of foreign coin,
That he done cut in two.”
Sooo, Poor Melvin, handcuffed, gave
His Gold Speech one more time.
The Judge just shook his head and said,
“In Georgia’s it’s a crime.”
“Now theory’s nice, young man,” he said
“But law is not your sayso,
If it was, the Mexicans
Could pay here with a peso.”
So, Melvin’s on the chain gang now
A kudzu-chopping man.
He gets a whole two bucks a day
Paid in American.
Sooo, let this be a lesson:
There ain’t nothing wrong with dollars.
Use a little common sense,
Ignore Internet scholars!!!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – you should send that epic poem to Ron Paul. I am sure he would appreciate it. lolol That’s hilarious.
The dollar is at a seven year high versus the yen. Dollar debasement?
SWM – the yen is weak. I follow China and they are about to go into a recession
Gold??? Oh, I got thrown off Zerohedge for being an anti-Gold Bug. Here is an example:
Where The Gold Don’t Shine!
An irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a Gold Bug, so bold,
That he made him a phallus of gold.
It was a tight squeeze. . .
But he saved storage fees!
Though he grimaced a lot, so I’m told.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I think gold is a wonderful hedge against dollar debasement, has it corrected sharply the last couple years , for sure. However, the only thing that holds up the dollars value is it’s reserve currency status, and this is being eroded by the BRICS. QE had hyperinflation written all over it, but virtually all that newly minted fiat went straight back to the Federal Reserve, where they earn interest on the money they borrowed for nothing in the first place. The whole scheme is a testament to abolishing central planning/banking. It did however inflate asset classes around the world, to levels that have nothing in common with the fundamental economy.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-2014-a-republican-wave/ “Complication No. 3. The House, Senate and gubernatorial results seem to tell different stories. Polls project major Republican gains in the Senate but modest ones in the House and perhaps a net loss of Republican governorships. How to reconcile this evidence?
The third part is the easiest to resolve — and probably the most important to a macro-level understanding of Tuesday’s outcome. Most Senate seats on the ballot this year were last contested in 2008, an extraordinarily strong Democratic year. House seats were last contested in 2012, a pretty good Democratic year. Most governorships were last on the ballot in 2010, an awful Democratic year.
So if the election goes about as polls predict, it would suggest that 2014 was way worse for Democrats than 2008 and somewhat worse than 2012 but somewhat better for them than 2010.”
Well, duh.”
slohrss, Maybe it is good to catch a falling knife, gold. That is why I asked you if Schiff was calling a bottom.
@ slohrs29
Goats and chickens 🙂
You can’t eat gold, but you can eat goats or chicken, plus they provide you with milk, hides, eggs and feathers. Never discount the bartering potential.
I would not rule gold out. Been around a lot longer than the dollar. People will need something as a base for exchange when the current shell game blows up.
Everyone pays some taxes Paul. Why would you begrudge a single working mom’s kids a little extra food? 🙁
Annie – boo hoo. Wave the crying rag. Everyone needs to pay income tax. Everyone needs skin in the game and that includes the single mother with 3 kids.
Hey Paul and Annie – Realistically Speaking, with exemptions, child care credit, and earned income credit, you get more back than you pay in. I know because I have been there and done that so it’s all a bunch of whining hooey.
Annie they don’t been there done that. You get more back than you put in. Trust me. The Earned Income Credit is a good thing
I would have to disagree with the poster on the jobs round, the unemployment rate in America has been falling almost entirely due to the fact that people out of work for I believe a year or more are not counted. It’s more than disingenuous to say unemployment has done much of anything since 2000, so not just Obama’s fault. The fabulous David Stockman has done extensive articles showing the failure of the American economy since the dotcom crash. His website is one of the best I’ve read for you contrarians out there. The failures of the American economy are rooted in mostly fascist policies that have come to the fore in the last 30 years. The policies themselves are another debate, but it’s hard to argue the American economy is still a dynamic job creator given the abyss of regulation and federal dictates in the last generation or so.
Well, I know we aren’t supposed to stalk other posters and commenters, but I did it anyway. For the public good! I snuck up behind Mr. Esposito on Saturday, and surreptitiously snapped this photograph of him preparing this article!
http://birtherthinktank.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/honey-wagon.jpg
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-03/gold-extends-drop-with-silver-toward-lowest-since-2010-on-dollar.html Peter Schiff has been wrong for a few years now. Wonder if he is calling the bottom in gold.