If you listen to right wing media you’d think the economy has been on the edge of collapse for the last six years. Anyone who listened to those whiny naysayers missed out on what will go down in history as one of the greatest economic bull market recoveries in modern times. After a slow winter GDP roared back by 4 percent. In June the trade deficit dropped to $41.5 billion, largely on the strength of increased exports. Yeah, that’s America sending things overseas. We gained 200,000 new jobs and, since government hiring has been slow to recover, the bulk of those new jobs are private sector. Real wages, which did lag the recovery for a long time, are finally starting to move higher and every qualified job applicant is competing against three other qualified applicants, down from seven in 2010.
My dad is in his late 80s and has dabbled in investing all his life. Last year dad made enough from investment income to buy a house, a nice house. He made more from the stock market last year than the top 3 percent of wage earners. I’m a bit more conservative investor than pops and only made enough to buy a car. The best part, since some of those increases were capital gains, dad paid lower taxes on his stellar income than most of you pay on regular wages.
The 54% of Americans who invested in the Obama stock market are today steeped in a capitalistic orgy of cash the likes of which I don’t remember in my lifetime. I can see why some right wingers might be mad. If I had listened to Glenn Beck and kept my money out of the market and bought gold, which dropped from near $1,800 an ounce to around $1,300 an ounce, I might be a tad upset myself. Instead of reaping an investment bounty, they’re huddled in their bug out trailers stuffed with freeze dried food and assault rifle ammunition. How’s the market for bug out trailers holding up?
I can go to any business site and find people complaining about Obama’s socialist policies. From my perspective, if this is socialism...bring...it...on! Give me some more of that socialism! Socialism is making my family wealthy.
If this economy would have happened under Bush, Fox News would be the 24 hour Republican good news channel. Republicans would be out in force during the mid-terms and every billboard in America would be touting the GOP economic miracle. And yet, what are we hearing from Democrats? A tepid position on immigration, which is important, but barely a peep about the economy.
The pathetic whining and economic incompetence of Republicans is matched only by the spineless, ineffective and gutless messaging of Democrats. Where’s the Democratic victory lap on the Obama economy? Maybe it’s muted by the 46 percent of Americans who don’t invest in the stock market. Hey, I’m sorry if you missed out on the greatest bull market in history, but the signs were there for the half of America laying their money down. I believed in the Obama economy and put my money where my mouth was, so to speak, and it paid off big. Isn’t that what America is all about? Why shouldn’t I be proud of that? Why aren’t the Democrats?
Here’s a free talking point - Republicans have been dead wrong on every major economic issue of our time. Every...single…one. Where’s that apocalyptic inflation I still read about on right wing rags? Still waiting for the apocalyptic inflation, still waiting for the dollar to collapse, still waiting for the economy to grind to a halt and we’re still waiting for higher taxes to kill jobs in California. None of that shit came true, NONE of it. Getting advice from Republicans on the economy is like getting a lecture on abstinence from Jenna Jameson.
Aside from the economy I believe the treatment president Obama has gotten from this country will go down as one of the great shameful and repulsive moments in our political history. While I disagree with many of the president’s policies, particularly when it comes to spying on Americans, I don’t question his patriotism or country of origin and certainly don’t question his handling of the economy.
I don’t care what label you put on it, we’re going to look back with longing on the Obama economy some day, I know I will.