Bush did not inherit a recession from the Clinton administration

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200405010002

Backdating the Recession: A Report by Media Matters for America; Release date: May 3, 2004

Even before President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, his surrogates began to suggest that the Bush administration was inheriting an economic recession from the Clinton administration. Over the last three and a half years, the media has been awash in false references to Bush "inheriting a recession" from Clinton. A recent Media Matters for America poll found that 62 percent of Americans hold the false belief that the recession began under Clinton.

In March 2001, the U.S. economy went into recession for the first time in ten years, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER.) NBER -- the private, nonpartisan organization whose business cycle announcements have long been considered the definitive word on the topic -- announced its determination on November 26, 2001:

The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER's chronology.

[Uncle Joe]

1. Media Matters does good work.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, NNNOLHI.

[PDJane]

2. If they keep on saying it,

They hope that the American people will take it at face value...or that the American people have a very short memory.

It seems to me that you can say almost anything to the populace, and they'll believe it, either because the alternative is too awful to contemplate, or because they are too sedated to think about it, I'm not sure.

[ejpoeta]

9. the american people DO have a short attention span and memory.

they seem to believe a lot of things that aren't true and they were around at the time to know it. i just don't understand it.

[PDJane]

11. Frankly, neither do I.

Americans are also more liberal than their leaders, but they'll say that they are Republican a lot of the time.

It's the media crap that started in the Reagan era, I think.

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Dot Com Burst

The aftermath of the 2000 Dot Com Bubble burstinge probably had alot to do with people feeling like it was down before the actual recession hit. Not that it was Clintons fault but the economy was already slowing down months before the election.

[Zynx]

7. The Dot Com burst was actually over by May or so of 2000. The real tech burst was the decline in

capital spending on computers and servers was what really kicked in the economy in the nuts. The dot com bubble was just the silliest part of the "real" side of the tech boom. Most of the internet stocks burst early in 2000.

[Zynx]

4. I will be fair on this point.

The economy was clearly limping by the time Bush took office. It had contracted in the third quarter in 2000. It contracted in the first quarter of 2001. There was no avoiding that. The issue with Bush that I have is that his economic growth coming out of the recession was the weakest on record. He pushed a massive tax cut that didn't do a damn thing to stimulate our economy and made sure regulations that weren't enforced that let the financial services industry engineer us into the worst recession since the Depression.

[louis-t]

5. If stupidface was so brilliant, why couln't he fix it

in 8 years? Economy always seems to bottom out at the end of repug presidents' terms. No matter how good repugs tell you they did, economy is always at the bottom when they leave.

[bbinacan]

6. I feel like playing Devil's Advocate today

If you believe that the definition of a recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP, then we didn't have one.

2000
I 2000
II 2000
III 2000
IV 2001
I 2001
II 2001
III 2001
IV
1 Gross domestic product 1.0 6.4 -0.5 2.1 -0.5 1.2 -1.4 1.6

Plus the shrub was in office for all of 5 weeks and operating under the previous years budget.

:hide: :popcorn:

Be gentle, today is my birthday.:evilgrin:

[Zynx]

8. We actually had a down quarter in Q3 2000. No one is going to tell me that wasn't

important.

[bbinacan]

10. Very good point. n/t

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. Happy Birthday!

One thing I remember is that it seemed most forecasts were for a "soft landing" in 2001.

[noamnety]

12. Bush inherited all the qualities needed for a recession

housing bubble, stock market bubble, fake value that didn't really exist ... the outcome was inevitable.

More than 20 years in the making: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JA29Dj01.html

[jumptheshadow]

14. Right on the mark

Although it was clear that the economy was slowing, Bush started harping on about how the country was in recession BEFORE there was a recession. The guy was a quintessential bad PR machine. He assumed no leadership, did not constructively address any economic issues, he just complained.

The Bush family = Recession