NOTE FROM THE PUBLIsHER: Recessional
Regnery, Alfred S.
n o T e f R o M T H e P u b l I s H e R Recessional by alfred s. Regnery Remember Jimmy Carter’s “misery index”? You add inflation to unemployment, and the result tells you how miserable...
...So I asked him what he thought about the current situation, and whether we were in a recession...
...After all, as Barack Obama said the other day, the economy is in “shambles” as a result of not enough government spending and regulation...
...It’s a safe bet that in terms of today’s economy, it will be the latter...
...I have taken several courses, and read about it all the time...
...We are definitely in a recession...
...Now the Democrats are at it again, telling us that to correct the errors of the last eight years we need to return to Carter-style policies...
...And that misery index...
...But +0.6 percent is not negative...
...Abso lutely,” was the reply...
...Give him a chance, and he’ll change that, along with everything else...
...And what,” I asked, “does that have to do with a recession...
...Anything else...
...Really...
...I replied...
...Again, no idea...
...If that wasn’t bad enough, the prime interest rate had climbed from some 7 percent to over 20 percent during Carter’s four years, with home mortgage rates hovering near 18 percent...
...The result, as usual, will either make things worse, or have the usual unintended consequences that follow new government programs...
...I asked the young man how he knew that...
...Again, no idea what the inflation rate was...
...But a recession it is not—a recession requires two successive quarters of negative economic growth...
...Inflation is pretty bad, and getting worse...
...There is no question that we are in an economic slowdown, that housing is in a slump, and that the banks and other credit institutions are paying the price for getting involved in lots of bad home mortgages...
...I asked...
...Yes, it could get worse...
...Democrats know the only way they can win is to persuade voters that things are even worse than they seem...
...Their friends in the mainstream press, as always, are only too happy to help them do the persuading...
...Still, a bad economy is good for Democratic prospects in November...
...during the fourth quarter of 2007, economic growth was at a paltry 0.6 percent, the worst in five years...
...Typical was a young writer I interviewed the other day—just out of college and looking for a job—who told me he liked to write about the economy...
...People are really having a tough time getting jobs,” he answered (and maybe he was beginning to wonder if he was in that predicament himself...
...She fails to mention, of course, that both inflation and unemployment are lower now than they were, on average, during the Clinton years...
...I inquired...
...By the time Carter left the White House four years later, he had managed to drive the misery index to an alltime high of 21.98 percent...
...What is the unemployment rate...
...I asked...
...As people start believing we are in a recession, Congress and the regulators begin to think they need to meddle in the marketplace to try to fix it...
...I told the poor thing that he was entitled to his own opinion, but certainly not his own facts...
...When he ran for president in 1976, Carter was so critical of Republicans’ handling of the economy that he charged anybody responsible for giving the country a misery index as high as it was at the time (13.5 percent) had no business even running for president...
...Just 8.83 percent...
...I do,” he replied...
...alfred s. Regnery is publisher of The American 6 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R M a y 2 0 0 8 Spectator and author of the new book Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism (Threshold/ Simon & Schuster...
...Do you know much about economics...
...The people decided they liked Republican economics better and elected Ronald Reagan...
...He hadn’t the faintest idea...
...They do appear to be doing a good job of it...
...You add inflation to unemployment, and the result tells you how miserable you are...
...What else makes you think this is a recession...
...n o T e f R o M T H e P u b l I s H e R Recessional by alfred s. Regnery Remember Jimmy Carter’s “misery index...
...Well, the dollar is really in bad shape, very low...
...Clinton, trying to be a bit more “presidential,” won’t use the R-word, but makes no bones about the fact that the Bush years have been a disaster for the economy and the average worker, and that she can fix it...
...It has often been said that there are only two things that Congress does well: nothing and overreact...
Vol. 41 • May 2008 • No. 4
