While The 'ever-fearful' Fed continues to hold rates at emergency low levels, President Obama proclaimed once again that "we've recovered quicker" as he took yet another economic victory lap. "I'm proud of our economic track record" he exclaimed, despite Harvard having blown that myth out of the water, before he turned his attention to Trump, talling him to "stop whining."
President Obama explained today…
- *OBAMA ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY: FAIR TO SAY WE'VE RECOVERED QUICKER
- *OBAMA: "I'M PROUD OF OUR ECONOMIC TRACK RECORD"
Which is odd, as we detailed previously, Harvward University thinks it's nothing to be proud of at all…
A couple of months back we posted 9 charts that, at least in our minds, debunked the myth of the "Obama Recovery" despite suggestions from the administration that any such efforts were just a futile attempt at "peddling fiction" (our original post: "These Are The 9 Zero Hedge Charts Showing "Obama's Recovery" That Angered The Washington Post").
Turns out that Harvard likes to dabble in "fiction peddling" as well:
In a recent study entitled "Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided" (study can be viewed in its entirety at the end of this post), Harvard University points out that, despite claims of an "Obama Recovery," in fact, the U.S. economy has continued to deteriorate in the aftermath of the "great recession." Among other things, Harvard attributes the economic deterioration to a "lack of economic strategy, especially at the federal level" and a "political system was once the envy of many nations" but has now "become our greatest liability." Below are a couple of the key conclusions:
America’s economic performance peaked in the late 1990s, and erosion in crucial economic indicators such as the rate of economic growth, productivity growth, job growth, and investment began well before the Great Recession.
Workforce participation, the proportion of Americans in the productive workforce, peaked in 1997. With fewer working-age men and women in the workforce, per-capita income for the U.S. is reduced.
Median real household income has declined since 1999, with incomes stagnating across virtually all income levels. Despite a welcome jump in 2015, median household income remains below the peak attained in 1999, 17 years ago. Moreover, stagnating income and limited job prospects have disproportionately affected lower-income and lower-skilled Americans, leading inequality to rise.
Meanwhile, Harvard points out that "pessimism about the trajectory of U.S. competitiveness deepened in 2016" for the first time in 5 years.
Pessimism about the trajectory of U.S. competitiveness deepened in 2016, for the first time since we started surveying alumni in 2011. Fifty percent of the business leaders surveyed expect U.S. competitiveness to decline in the coming three years, while 30% foresee improvement and 20% no change.
Harvard argues that one of the primary causes of the sustained economic downturn has been a lack of an economic strategy from the federal government which has instead chosen to rely exclusively on accomodative Fed policies.
The U.S. lacks an economic strategy, especially at the federal level. The implicit strategy has been to trust the Federal Reserve to solve our problems through monetary policy.
So having been shown up as a liar and a pitchman, Obama added:
- *OBAMA: "I'D ADVISE MR. TRUMP TO STOP WHINING"
Obama: "I would invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes." https://t.co/0fWfJzjeVf http://pic.twitter.com/LSSAGTUFGI
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 18, 2016
Which we presume reflects on the deplortable half of Americans who support Trump (and did not buy stocks)…
via http://ift.tt/2ehF1pK Tyler Durden