Gold Dragon
Well-Known Member
So which one of those would you attribute to the Obama Administration?
We like to compare presidents/leaders by how the economy performed under their watch but the reality is that our leaders often only have small impacts on the economy overall. National economies are large unweildly entities that have so many facets that go into it. A national leader only has a few small tools at his/her disposal and any impact will be delayed. Imaging trying to steer the titanic with a few small rudders. The impact is small and delayed.
It is very difficult for a political leader to make an economic impact in their first year of leadership as whatever trends were occurring prior to his/her term in office is likely to continue on its course. My feeling is that the new leader and old leader have similar impacts on the economy in the 2nd year of the new leader's term and by their third year, the new leader's impact will clearly overtake that of the old leader. This is keeping in mind that those impacts are generally very small. We often give leaders more credit for successes and failures of the economy during their term than they really deserve.
This seems like a pretty fair evaluation of Obama's economic impact
The Economic Impact of the Obama Presidency, 2009-2017