Slate - "Why Does The Economy Do Better Under Democrats?" Re New Study

[TomCADem]

Alan Blinder and Mark Watson recently published a paper documenting that the economy grows more under Democratic Presidents than Republican ones. Of course, the MSM has largely ignored the publication of this paper.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/12/02/blinder_and_watson_on_partisan_election_performance.html

They say a liberal is someone who doesn't know how to take his own side in an argument, and the latest paper from former Clinton administration official Alan Blinder and co-author Mark Watson seems to confirm it. The paper looks at the well-established fact that GDP growth under Democratic Party presidents is more rapid than under GOP Presidents, and concludes that it's all just a coincidence. Except they don't mount a very strong argument for that conclusion.

* * *

Lets take this in order. Consumer confidence is definitely something you could imagine the President being able to impact despite central bank independence and the separation of powers. People think of Democrats as representing majoritarian economic interests and unpopular secularism and internationalism. So when a Republican gets in, they expect America to stand tall on the world stage and stand up for core moral values but perhaps give short-shrift to the middle class. When a Democrat gets in, it's just the opposite. So Democrats = more confidence.

Then there's oil. The balance of powers is tilted much more toward the president and away from congress in the foreign policy and national security realm. It's no surprising that Republicans' more confrontational approach to international relations leads to more frequent oil supply disruptions.

Now you come to TFP. If TFP growth were slower under Democrats, then I promise you conservative economists would cite this as evidence that Democrats are obviously promoting productivity-killing regulations. But perhaps that's 180 degrees backwards. Perhaps Republicans, as the party of business, are much more likely to engage in pro-incumbent regulatory decision-making while Democrats who are cross-pressured from a wider range of interest groups (big business has a voice in Democratic administrations, but labor and environmental groups are totally frozen out of GOP ones) do better at making decisions in the national interest.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. Because republicans believe that government can't do anything good.

Democrats believe that government can and should do good.

Everything else flows from that basic world view. Republicans will always run government in a malfeasant, malpracticing way to validate their philosophy.

[nikto]

3. Under Republicans...

"government can't do anything good."

[geek tragedy]

2. Democrats prioritize jobs, Republicans prioritize profits nt

[Notafraidtoo]

4. I like to tell people who don't like complex economic explanations this

In order for capitalism to work for the majority of the population most of the money earned must be spent, the middle class and poor do their part by spending almost every dime they make but the rich do not, too often more earnings will equal no increase in spending for the wealthy and they earned some of that money from cutting wages, laying off employees and making their company's more productive. This allows them to higher even less people making even more earnings they don't plan to spend, the same can be said of wealthy investors who will also not spend much of their earnings after a certain point.

It doesn't take a wise person to see this is a recipe for disaster and is very much apart of our current recession and the further decline of our nation, the main things government can do to correct this is consumer protections, labor law, tariffs on goods and of course tax policy, All things republicans hate and Democrats can barely get traction on because of a gullible public to capitol marketing.


Basically in my mind we are doomed until a total collapse, the leeches today who most often are soon to retire ( their reason for leaving no future, its more profitable for them personally to loot the company or corporation) are going to leave nothing but a dried husk of a middle class, and that middle class wont speak up until they are that husk.

[BB_Smoke]

5. Another look at this study

President Harry S. Truman famously observed that “If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic!” But just how much truth is there to this popular maxim? Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson of Princeton University put it to the test in their new study “Presidents and the Economy: A Forensic Investigation.” Their research reveals that patterns tending to favor Democratic presidents can be linked to specific economic barometers: Consumer confidence, oil shocks, and productivity shocks. However, the bulk of their findings attributes the overall success of White House Democrats to “random fluctuations.” Or as they put it in layman’s terms, “luck”.

- See more at: http://aattp.org/new-study-proves-u-s-economy-fares-better-under-democratic-presidents/#sthash.OwMJF0Qn.dpuf

[RainDog]

6. k&r n/t