Retro 6, Part 6, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Gross Economic Mismanagement

We originally ran this post back in October at around the 100 day mark of the final days of the Obama Presidency. We ended up running about seven blog posts which did a deep dive into the activities, acomplishmentsand failures of this Presidency. We found very little in the way of accomplishments but dozens and dozens of cases of falures and disasters, from the economy to foreign affairs to the basic concept of integrity. We are going to rerun those post over the next week or so as we close in on an end of an error, the Obama Presidency. 

Part 6, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Gross Economic Mismanagement

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:

• I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era.
• Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 
• I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump. 

Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

Today, we will focus on the total mismanagement of the economy by the Obama administration. Now, I bet that many Obama supporters will try to point out what a fine job that Obama did in the economic realm over his Presidency, that:

• He has gotten the U3 unemployment rate down to about 5%. 
• He has presided over an economic recovery that is one of the longest ever. 
• He has seen steady, if low, job growth over the past six years. 
• He came into office with a nation suffering from a deep recession. 

But he had the following economic tailwinds to help the recovery, tailwinds that no other recession President ever enjoyed:

• Obama spent over $800 billion on a (failed) economic stimulus plan. 
• He enjoyed record low energy prices during his term that should have significantly spurred consumer and business economic growth, employment, and activity. 
• He had the support of trillions of fake dollars that the Federal Reserve pumped into the economy. 
• The Federal Reserve kept interest rates at low, low levels for a record long time.

Despite these unprecedented tailwinds, he still managed to botch the recovery since:

Over 43 million Americans still require Federal food assistance every month, 13 million more Americans than who were on food assistance rolls when Obama took office despite six years of the Obama economic recovery.

Growth in household incomes and wages has been basically stagnant during most of the Obama economic recovery period.

Job growth during the Obama economic recovery period has been concentrated in low wage areas of the economy, e.g. food services and retailing, which is a major factor in the lack of household income and wage growth.

According to a recent Gallup poll and a different analysis by the Federal Reserve Board, over 40% of U.S. households could not easily cope with an unexpected $400 household expense.

According to a recent Chapman University survey, more than a third of U.S. households have no savings to speak off despite six years of Obama’s economic recovery.

More Americans over the age of 65 than ever have elected to stay in the workforce, possibly because they have not yet recovered from the recession, six years into the Obama recovery period.

More American millennials than ever are still living at home since many of them cannot find a job that enables them enough wage power to live on their own.

The labor participation rate is at a forty year low as Americans cannot find a suitable full time job, causing many of them to drop out of the workforce.

There are more than 94 million American adults who are not in the workforce, an all time record.

More than six million Americans are working at part time jobs because they cannot find suitable full time jobs.

A more suitable measure of unemployment, the U6 unemployment rate, which more realistically takes into account frustrated Americans who have dropped out of the workforce is almost 10%, double the now outdated U3 unemployment rate.

Annual GDP growth never came close to the long term average during this recovery, with the Obama recovery never attaining at least a 3% annual GDP economic growth rate in any single year, an unprecedented, lower than average performance relative to historical trends.

The Obama administration has doubled the national debt load from $10 trillion to about $20 trillion during its tenure, adding more debt than all previous Presidencies COMBINED, a debt load that will restrict robust economic growth into the future.

The Obama administration has done nothing to reduce the long term growth in the national debt, which will place incredible economic pressure and strains on future American workers, businesses, and households.

The Obama administration has raised the key economic measure, national debt to GDP ratio, to over 1.00, a historically and dangerously high level, making the country’s debt load dangerously high and comparable to Greece’s.

The Obama administration spent over $800 billion on a failed economic stimulus program, that did nothing to promote long term economic growth (e.g. no substantial infrastructure was put in place despite the infamous “shovel ready jobs” slogan.)

The Obama administration implemented a series of inane, ill fated and amateurish economic programs that failed miserably including Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, and Cash For Insulation.

The Obama administration’s economic policies have done nothing to improve the employment plight of minorities despite being the first African-American President.

The Obama administration gave away billions and billions of dollars to a multitude of alternative energy companies, most of which had political and fundraising relationships with Obama, and almost all of them went bankrupt with no societal benefits in return.

The Obama administration added thousands and thousands of new Federal government regulations which wasted business and business owners' time and effort, distracting them from growing their business and overall economic growth, and placed bureaucratic, taxation, and legal burdens on businesses and industries across the nation while simultaneously raising the cost of doing business in America, costs that could have better been used to grow businesses and the economy.

The Obama Care regulations forced employers to reduce many of their employees to part time status which has greatly contributed to the stagnation of household income growth and forced those business owners to waste time, effort, and resources complying with the burdensome Obama Care bureaucracy and regulations.

Horrible, horrible economic management despite the four major tailwinds we listed above. So yes, Obama did get the outdated U3 unemployment rate down to about 5% but that accomplishment was attained with low wage jobs and in the face of millions of Americans dropping out of the workforce from frustration. 

Yes, he did preside over one of the longest economic recoveries of all time but he did it by doubling the national debt and generated far less economic growth than most other economic recoveries that were shorter in duration.

And yes, he did come into office in the midst of a recession but so did other Presidents, almost all of whom managed the country out of the recession into far more robust recoveries.

Overall, very forgettable economic strategies and management despite incredible conditions that should have had the economy soaring. More failures tomorrow.

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