Why Don’t These Two Recovery Lines Match? Love and Optimism is a Big Reason.

It has apparently become chic to compare Barack Obama to Ronald Reagan, or at least to compare the Reagan Recovery to the current whatever-the-heck-this-thing-is that the President calls a recovery. Neither Soccer Dad nor Scared Monkeys were particularly amused by the comparison and I recommend their posts to you so you can get the reasoning straight from the taps. In short, they both make the point, in entirely different ways, that the two Presidents are polar opposites, both in their attitudes toward the American people and in their economic policies.

I think the Reagan/Obama comparison is ridiculous for a more elementary reason: Reagan’s recovery was working after 16 months while Obama’s clearly is not. Behold, a chart (via Veronique de Rugy)!

What’s different? Well, two things. First, Reagan’s recovery started from a far worse employment and inflation position. As the chart shows, unemployment was also a half-point higher in 1981 than in 2007. Inflation wasn’t nearly that close. In July, 1981 it was 10.76 percent and, 16 months later, it was less than half that, 4.59%. On the other hand, inflation was a tiny 4.09% in December, 2007. Reagan had a very tough row to hoe on both fronts and had a hostile Congress the entire time.

So why did Reagan succeed where Obama has badly failed? Well, economic policy is a big part of it. You can’t expect an economy to grow after you’ve sucked a few trillion dollars out of it, slammed it with restrictive and capricious regulations, and passed sprawling pieces of legislation with far-reaching economic effects without ever reading any of them.

But just as important, I think, is the way each man has treated the citizens of this country. Ronald Reagan left no doubt that he loved this country and trusted each citizen to handle their own affairs. Morning in America wasn’t just a campaign slogan to Reagan. It’s the way he really felt about our nation. President Obama, on the other hand, doesn’t think America’s all that special. We know his wife gives it no special regard. And if you’re one of those folks who can’t readily afford his $30,000 a plate fundraising dinners, why then you’re nothing but a bitter clinger.

Optimism is important. Believing in people is important, especially if you are a leader, part of whose job is to inspire those people to help dig you out of a deep hole. Reagan was an optimist. Reagan inspired. Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan and that’s why his “recovery” looks more like a malaise.

NOTE: I know the post title does not look grammatically correct. Let me ‘splain. “Love and Optimism” is, from my POV, a single unit that work together when it comes to the relationship between the President and the country. You can’t have one without the other. Unfortunately, I don’t know a better word to combine those two feelings so I used them separately. I mean for you to consider them as a single thing, though. In hindsight, I probably should have used quotation marks to tie them together, but then it’d look like I was talking about a 60′s soul ballad, perhaps sung by Al Greene.

Other Posts of Interest:

• The Bailout is Now A Trillion Dollars More Expensive than World War II. The Madness Must Stop
• They Have Too Much Power
• Forty Conservatives Gems of Wisdom (And A Few of My Own)

Tags: America, Economics, President Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan

Category: The Economy and Your Money