As much as the media has tried to hype the Obama economy as the Obama Boom, the truth is that growth is anemic. The GDP contracted in the 4th quatrer, which is usually a recessionary sign. Unemployment went up and the economy is only adding 150,000-180,000 jobs a month, that is just treading water. Incomes have declined and thanks to Ben Bernanke’s money printing, the standard of living is crumbling. Yet somehow, Americans still love Obama and have accepted an anemic economy.
Nations probably never choose decline, at least not consciously. More likely they become victims of a creeping normalcy. Things once objectionable can become passively acceptable if they happen slowly, incrementally: the boiling-frog syndrome. Decline just sort of happens, year by year, decade by decade, one “meh” economic report at a time.
Last Thursday the U.S. Commerce Department reported that fourth-quarter GDP fell at a 0.1 percent annual rate. For the year, the U.S. economy grew a meager 2.2 percent. That’s a bit better than 2011, but about a percentage point less than what most economists think is the economy’s current potential. Even worse, the first few recovery years after deep downturn typically exhibit abnormally strong catch-up growth. But that’s not happening post–Great Recession. White House spokesman Jay Carney conceded the obvious, that the negative quarterly report was “not good news,” and then blamed congressional Republicans for creating a “headwind” of political uncertainty. The next day the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.9 percent in January as the economy added 157,000 net new jobs. At that rate of job creation, with all else equal, the economy wouldn’t return to 4.4 percent unemployment — the George W. Bush administration’s low point — for another eight years. Oh, and that’s assuming no recessions between now and 2021.
It must be terribly inconvenient for the Obama White House to be reminded every quarter and every month that the $800 billion stimulus — and subsequent mini-stimuli — failed to ignite the boom Obama economists repeatedly predicted through the first term.
It is sad that Americans are now accepting anemic growth and a lower standard of living. The Media-Entertainment Industrial Complex has convinced Americans this is the best we can do. Its sad that America which was a dynamic nation has low economic expectations.
Obama has robbed this nation of hope and left us with little change!
Update: Obama is calling to delay Sequestration
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will ask Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1, White House officials said Tuesday.
Obama will make his request afternoon in a public statement at the White House.
The Republicans should hold firm and make Obama present a proposal.
Tags: James Pethokoukis, New Normal, Stagnation
