A Bush "YES" man speaks

Don't worry. Be happy. So says Michael Novak.

U.S. output today is just about 40 percent higher than it was when President Clinton left office. The nominal GDP has grown from $10 trillion at the end of 2001 to $14 trillion at the end of January 2008. In other words, the U.S. has added to its national wealth an equivalent to the whole nominal GDP of China (in 2007, $3.25 trillion). The U.S. today is as big as it was in 2001, plus the whole GDP of China.

Oh really? Has it occurred to him that the value of the dollar has eroded about 40%? In January 2001 one $US bought 1.08 Euros. Today one $US buys 0.65 Euros. The US hasn't added anything but a case of near-hyper inflation.

He goes on to say

At the end of 2001, when President Bush’s economic policies were just beginning to take hold, total civilian employment was just over 136 million. At the end of January 2008, it was 146 million. Some ten million new jobs! Not the greatest, but not bad; certainly not “horrible.” During the last six months, the number of the employed is down 100,000 — not as huge a decrease as everyone has been imagining. The total employment in June was 145.9 million.

Where to begin on this one? First off all the end of 2001 was the start of the Fed's insane interest rate policy. That created millions of jobs in the housing bubble. Everything from realtors to construction workers (90% of whom are illegals of course and are a net drain on society), to title company workers etc. Give me free money and I'll create jobs too building up a Ponzi scheme.

But even setting that aside, 10 million jobs created over 8 years in a country as large as the US is not exactly impressive. The population in 2000 was 281 million. The population in 2008 is 301 million. That's a growth of 7.1% in the population. The number of jobs grew from 136 million to 146 million. That's a growth of 7.3%. WOW!! Job growth kept up with population growth. I guess that means Bush's face should be added to Mt. Rushmore ASAP.

So even with the Ponzi scheme knows as the housing bubble, the free money handed out to anyone with a pulse by banks, there was 0% job growth over this decade. Not that a proud Bush yes man would ever point these kinds of things out. No, just keep telling us everything is just super duper and all will be well. Just spend your stimulus check(s) like good little drones and don't worry about a thing.