I think that a study of the media coverage of the economy would be very interesting. My intuition is that news articles, like this one in the New York Times on how little influence presidents actually have on the economy, become increasingly common in election years when the economy is in the doldrums (or worse) and the candidate preferred by the media belongs to the same political party as the incumbent.
My own view hearkens back to a remark made by one of my econ profs about 50 years ago to the effect that we don’t know how to produce prosperity but we do know how to create shortages. I think that the president can have some influence on the economy but most of that influence is bad. Inaction is sometimes to be preferred over action but presidents tend to have a prejudice in favor of action. Ill-considered action is the inevitable response to complaints about what is the president doing about XYZ?
They also serve, etc. But try to convince an editor of the NYT of that.
A point I’ve attempted to make numerous times in the past. I’m always fascinated by pundits and candidates promising to “fight for you” or fix all manner of economic ills with their Rube Goldberg prescriptions.
The best almost inevitably is to avoid creating headwinds and get the hell out of the way.
Government isn’t the solution to the problem, it is the problem. Who said that?
Reminds me of the Ebola crisis. Sometimes you need government involvement. Sometimes you don’t, but never panic. The people who usually don’t want government involved, and let’s face it they like their govt freebies as much or more than anyone else, wanted to shut the country down. Fortunately for us, cooler heads ruled.
Steve
“The best almost inevitably is to avoid creating headwinds and get the hell out of the way.”
I’ll second that statement.
Much like the Denis Waitley’s quote about children, it’s better to give citizens roots of responsibility and wings of independence, rather than stifle their growth by the burdens of a heavy-handed central government — which is what is happening all over the country today.