Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The "Republi-CONs Are Better for the Economy" Myth

UPDATE:  "Since the Second World War, the economy has done better when Democrats are in the White House . . .

Read the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton was right: The economy has done better under Democrats.

The chart below shows that the economy under Carter did better than under any Republi-con president since WWII, even better than under Reagan.

Trump is right when he says that "the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. . .

Here's a chart showing the average rate of economic growth under each president since the Second World War, taken from a recent paper by Princeton University economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson. They note that when a Democrat was in the Oval Office, the average rate of growth was 4.4 percent. Under Republicans, the average rate was just 2.5 percent.



It's not just broad measures of economic growth, either, Blinder and Watson observe. Industrial production increased at an average rate of 5.6 percent under Democrats, compared to 1.8 percent under Republicans. The unemployment rate under Republicans averaged 6 percent, compared to just 5.6 percent under Democrats. The average return on the stock market has been 8.1 percent under Democrats, and 2.7 percent under Republicans.

Inflation is only measure by which the economy's performance under Democratic and Republican presidents is more or less equal. Prices have increased an average rate of 3 percent under Democrats, compared to 3.3 percent under Republicans — not a significant difference.

You might be thinking that even if the economy as a whole does worse under Republican presidents, the wealthy do better, since Republicans tend to favor low-tax policies on the wealthy. That's not true either, though.  As the political scientist Larry Bartels shows in this chart, things have been better for Americans under Democrats, now matter how much money you make.

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Read the Washington Post, Rand Paul is attacking Donald Trump for making a 100% true statement about the economy