.
"We have inherited an economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression."
Claims Mr. Obama. But the historical figures for the gross domestic product (GDP), calculated by the U.S. Bureau Economic Analysis, say something else.
After growing by 0.9 percent and 2.8 percent in the first two quarters of 2008, GDP declined by 0.5 percent and 3.5 percent in the third and fourth quarters of the year. Is that "an economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression"?
No. But we need not go back that far for favorable comparison.
1949 was far worse. GDP declined by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of that year and 1.2 percent in the second, then dropped 4 percent in the fourth. Did America did start an irreversible decline that year?
1953-54, there was also a downturn worse than the one Mr. Obama "inherited." GDP declined by 2.4 percent in the third quarter of 1953, by 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter and by 2 percent in the first quarter of 1954.
Did "Leave-it-to-Beaver" America spiral into a Steinbeckian Dust Bowl? No. The economy headed back to double-digit growth, expanding by 0.4 percent in the second quarter of 1954, 4.5 percent in the third and 8.2 percent in the fourth. In the first quarter of 1955, it jumped 12 percent.
1957-58; Something even more dramatic happened: In the fourth quarter of 1957, GDP declined by 4.2 percent, and in the first quarter of 1958, it declined by 10.4 percent. After the 10.4 percent GDP drop of early 1958, of course, Americans started growing their economy again.
1974-75; GDP declined by 3.8 percent, 1.6 percent and 4.7 percent. In the next four quarters, it grew by 3 percent, 6.9 percent, 5.4 percent and 9.3 percent.
1981-82; GDP declined by 4.9 percent and 6.4 percent - but then rebounded by 0.4 percent, 5 percent and 9.3 percent - and it kept growing all the way through the second quarter of 1990... [snip]
It is a historical fact that America's free market economy goes through cycles of growth and contraction that run on a consistently long-term upward track. [snip]
In fact, talking down the economy serves Mr. Obama's purposes. It helps sell his agenda for massively increasing government.
And it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy: America's economy has grown in the past because our people have not been overburdened by government. Mr. Obama could cause irreversible decline by creating an unsustainable government.
Do we really face the possibility of an irreversible crisis? Well, yes. Not the one Mr. Obama describes, but the one he may cause.
[Note the 2-year dip cycles - consistent except for those periods of government intervention 'fixing' the problem. How many times must we see it to learn? I think we have - it's just that reviving the economy is not the true purpose behind this massive government expansion...]
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