I recall the economy tanked the day Obama was elected. And the market, and employment went down down down down through his entire first year. Arguably, unemployment wasn't that bad when W. Bush was still president, and the downturn occurred AFTER Obama won the election. I recall unemployment at about 6% when he left. And I recall for two years after the media was fronting despite the job loss "Hey we're already out of recession, unemployment is just a lagging indicator!" Even as unemployment continued on and on. Despite the media flying air-cover for Obama, nothing changed.
I'll grant that employment numbers improved in the latter 8 years of Obama's presidency, but the net of jobs created to compensate for the job losses that were created after his election were unimpressively low. And while you no doubt would blame the job losses on Bush, I would again say that the precipitous and sustained stock market and mass layoffs began AFTER Obama's election, and I would argue in direct reaction to his anticipated economic policy.
And despite trillion dollar annual deficits, despite printing dollars at an unprecedented rate (expanding the money supply from $800 billion to over three trillion), a combined policy I call "burning the wick at both ends, despite all this manipulation, Obama never managed to reach 3% growth any year of his presidency.
I'm still at a loss to explain anything Obama actually did to create jobs. I think at some point, the layoffs and economic drop he oversaw went so low, there was just nowhere for the economy to go from there but up.
I used to visit whole foods a lot during that time, and I watched their stock go from 40 dollars a share to below 5 dollars a share. And then it actually went up within 2 years to over 50 dollars a share! So I guess at some point it became a good buying opportunity. In spite of Obama, because at some point there was nowhere to go but up.
If you disagree, please explain precisely what policy Obama enacted to stimulate growth. Other than inefficient printing of dollars and massive annual trillion-dollar deficits.
