April 9th, 2008 by everett
David Freddoso at the National Review passes along a chart showing how Democrats shift their stance (go figure, they are, after all, politicians) on the state of the American economy.
Democrats on the Economy in 1996:
“Our economy is the healthiest it has been in three decades.” (President Bill Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996)
Democrats on the Economy in 2008:
“The bottom line is that this administration is the owner of the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover.” (Senator Charles Schumer, Press Release, March 7, 2008)
- 1. U.S. Unemployment Rate: March 1996 - 5.5%, March 2008 - 5.1%
- 2. Number of Long-Term Unemployed: March 1996 - 1.33 million, March 2008 - 1.28 million
- 3. Average Weeks Unemployed: March 1996 - 17.3 weeks, March 2008 - 16.2 weeks
More back at The Corner. Odds on this making Mainstream Media? Naaaah, I didn’t think so, either.
Posted in democrats,economy,hypocrisy,politics. | 1 Comment or Trackback »
January 1st, 2008 by everett
2007 was a good year, economically. If you only watched the television business reporters, you probably wouldn’t know that, though. “War on the middle class,” bursting bubbles, hollow growth, etc.
… expectations that the housing crisis would trigger a collapse of US consumption and employment have, so far, proved wide of the mark. Second, and this is easy to lose sight of, shares and house prices have ended this year considerably higher than they began, despite all the horror stories.
In America, the Dow Jones is 7 per cent higher than 12 months ago, having hit a record as recently as October 9. The FTSE 100 is up 5 per cent and Germany’s DAX has gained no less than 23 per cent and is near its all-time high, having fully recovered the losses of July and August. In Asia, stock markets are all far above levels before the credit crisis, with Hong Kong up 40 per cent on the year and Shanghai up 70 per cent. Only in Japan have asset prices substantially fallen, hardly surprising considering the renewed incompetence of the country’s economic and political management since Junichiro Koizumi resigned as prime minister in 2006.
Property markets, too, have faired much better that one might imagine, at least outside America. Last week, Nationwide said its house-price index fell for a second consecutive month in December and most analysts (including me) expect the market to get a lot worse. But it’s the strength, not weakness, of house prices in 2007 that is most remarkable. Nationwide’s figure is 5 per cent higher than a year ago, even after the recent falls. In London, where prices are falling more steeply than in the rest of the country – and are likely to fall faster in the year ahead – the average house price is still about 10 per cent up on the year.
(bold-facing mine)
The Mrs. Swanky had a professor in her MBA program who once said that if everyone turned off the cable news for three weeks, world economies would respond with unprecedented growth.
Posted in 2007,economy. | 2 Comments and Trackbacks »
