http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/the-new-york-times-rewrites-history-to-tarnish-trump/
"By contrast," the story goes on, "when Mr. Obama took office, the country was losing 700,000 jobs a month, and the global financial system was teetering on the edge of collapse. By the time he stepped up to the rostrum for his first joint congressional address on Feb. 24, 2009, he had already accrued an impressive string of accomplishments, including the passage of a massive stimulus bill through the Democratic-controlled Congress, a gender pay-parity act, a children's health insurance law and executive actions that would ultimately help stabilize the financial and automotive sectors. With the prospect of a second Great Depression still high, Mr. Obama sought to rally the country."
That's a nice bit of revisionist history. Let's review:
"With the prospect of a second Great Depression still high."
This is depiction of events makes Obama look like the hero whose smart and swift interventions prevented another Depression. But it's not true.
The economy had already started to stabilize before Obama was sworn in, as indicated by monthly real GDP numbers compiled by Macroeconomic Advisers. The worst monthly declines were behind us before Obama was sworn in, and the recession officially ended just five months after he took office, but before most of his stimulus and other policies could have much of an impact.
What's more, an analysis of what ended the recession by economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi credited the $700 billion TARP program — signed into law by President Bush — and aggressive actions taken by the Fed — starting in 2008 — as being "substantially more powerful" in bringing the recession to an end than anything Obama did.
As to job losses, those also started to dissipate well before the bulk of Obama's stimulus money had been spent.
"By contrast," the story goes on, "when Mr. Obama took office, the country was losing 700,000 jobs a month, and the global financial system was teetering on the edge of collapse. By the time he stepped up to the rostrum for his first joint congressional address on Feb. 24, 2009, he had already accrued an impressive string of accomplishments, including the passage of a massive stimulus bill through the Democratic-controlled Congress, a gender pay-parity act, a children's health insurance law and executive actions that would ultimately help stabilize the financial and automotive sectors. With the prospect of a second Great Depression still high, Mr. Obama sought to rally the country."
That's a nice bit of revisionist history. Let's review:
"With the prospect of a second Great Depression still high."
This is depiction of events makes Obama look like the hero whose smart and swift interventions prevented another Depression. But it's not true.
The economy had already started to stabilize before Obama was sworn in, as indicated by monthly real GDP numbers compiled by Macroeconomic Advisers. The worst monthly declines were behind us before Obama was sworn in, and the recession officially ended just five months after he took office, but before most of his stimulus and other policies could have much of an impact.
What's more, an analysis of what ended the recession by economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi credited the $700 billion TARP program — signed into law by President Bush — and aggressive actions taken by the Fed — starting in 2008 — as being "substantially more powerful" in bringing the recession to an end than anything Obama did.
As to job losses, those also started to dissipate well before the bulk of Obama's stimulus money had been spent.
