I'm hesitant to give Obama credit, but I think Trump claiming that the unemployment rate was 30, 40, 50% during the election and immediately taking credit for the unemployment numbers in january 2017 was so disingenuous that it truly boggles the mind. Anyone that gives Trump credit for the current trajectory of unemployment numbers is beyond the pale.
Giving Obama credit to me is at the very least questionable - things were at rock bottom, they could almost only go up (and I supported Obama). There are so few absolutes to hold on to in terms of economic indicators for the layperson, but its hard to see how the Obama years were an economic catastrophe, and unfortunately we'll never know what the effect of a larger stimulus might have been (or no stimulus for that matter).
This is inaccurate. People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not considered part of the labor force. For instance this would include retired persons, students, people taking care of children or other family members, and those who have no desire at all to work. Here [1] is a brief on the reasons people are not counted.
Source? People tend to put much more thoughtful words in his mouth after the fact trying to make what he says seem more reasonable, but if you have a source I'd gladly review it.
In the meantime, politifact has a good breakdown of what he says about the issue and where the numbers come from (spoiler, they make some wild assumptions) [1].
The neat thing about macro scale dynamics (e.g. economics) is you can always choose to blame the current or previous powers, depending on which provides support for your political preferences.
While I think Obama's economic policies were total crap, at least he had a partially-supported justification for his deficits. Trump has no excuse for his deficits, and his neo-Smoot-Hawley "reforms" are going to put us back in the same place that Smoot-Hawley did. He's reckless and out of control.
It's startling what the growth on my 401k has done since November 2016. Essentially flat for years before, then immediately jumping, once the election results were in. Q1 2018 was a bit sluggish, but it's back on that tragectory again.
Even outside the market, people are hiring again, companies are making investments, it's a hell of a turn around.
> then immediately jumping, once the election results were in.
So your long-term retirement investment fund which should span over 20+ years increased somewhat drastically over a small percentage of it's perceived lifetime. Why is that superbly beneficial for long term fund performance?
> Even outside the market, people are hiring again
The stock market has being going sup since 2009 or so. Sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower. Look at a logarithmic chart and you will see that trend from 2009 to now. Same for unemployment. The rate has steadily gone down from 2010 on. There was no turn around in 2016.
You must be a terrible investor then, the DOW under Obama went from ~7,000 to 18,000, unemployment fell from 10% to 5%, nearly 20 million gained healthcare under the ACA, and the economy gained 11.6 million jobs. Obama's numbers blow Trump's away.
