March 03, 2004

Good Numbers For Bush Economy

National Review's J.Edward Carter puts together a summary of the performance of the economy during the first three years of the Bush administration as it compares to the first three years of the Clinton era. In many categories, the economy under Bush outperformed the 1993-95 time frame. Carter adds an additional perspective:

Considering the circumstances under which the U.S. economy has labored for the past few years, President Bush's record is all the more impressive. When George W. Bush moved into the White House, the economy was on the verge of recession. The largest stock market bubble in U.S. history had recently burst, exports were declining, manufacturing employment had been falling for half a year, and people were finding it harder and harder to find work. And that was before 9/11, the war on terror, and the revelations of the corporate-governance scandals that grew out of the late 1990s.

The two most publicized indicators, the inflation rate and the unemployment rate, are both significantly lower in the first years of Bush. See the handy table here.

Here are a couple of other "for instances":

-For the third consecutive year, the U.S. economy is poised to grow faster than most other industrialized economies. France, Germany, and Japan, for instance, are not expected to grow even half as fast as the United States.

-More single-family homes were sold in 2003 than in any other year on record. And the homeownership rate is at a record-high of 68.5 percent — a full percentage point higher than during the fourth quarter of 2000.

-At 5.6 percent, the national unemployment rate is now lower than the average unemployment rate of the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s.

Since the Bush administration began, non-farm productivity has increased at a 4.1 percent annual rate — the fastest pace for the start of any presidency since Harry S. Truman occupied the White House.

Posted by dan at March 3, 2004 12:25 PM
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