President Obama has staked a great part of his legacy on the idea that he skillfully engineered a great recovery from the financial crisis. The Obama-friendly media routinely parrot the idea. But in fact, as a shocking new study from the nonpartisan U.S. Council on Competitiveness and the Gallup organization suggests, the so-called recovery doesn't exist.
As recently as Oct. 11, less than a month before the election, the online publication The Hill ran this headline: "Obama's economic legacy ensures Democrats decades of success." No kidding. But it's a bit unfair to single them out: Others have run with similar themes. The point is, it's not true.
The reason Obama's chosen successor, Hillary Clinton, didn't win a third straight presidential term for the Democrats was that they actually seemed to believe their own propaganda...
..."Conventional wisdom — as reported in many major newspapers and media — tells us the U.S. economy is 'recovering,'... ...there is no recovery. Since 2007, U.S. GDP per capita has been 1%."
It's even worse when looking at a trend line. From a range of about 2.6% to as high as nearly 3.5% a year during the late 1960s, per capita GDP has steadily declined over time...
...That's the bad news.
The good news is, it can be fixed. But it will take radically different policies and the political will to buck the special interests, lobbyists and crony capitalists that stand in the way.
As such, whether you like him or not, President-elect Donald Trump is beholden to no one but the voters for his unlikely victory in November. He may be ideally suited for the difficult, but necessary, job of reforming the economy to restore its once-extraordinary growth. Let's hope so. If not, the next presidential campaign is just 36 months away.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
