Hoover, a Republican, was president from 1929 to 1933 and his term saw the stock market crash of 1929 and the early years of the Great Depression.
He was walloped by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933, having presided over huge job losses and having shanty towns on the edge of cities dubbed "Hoovervilles".
The similarity to Bush, also a Republican, is that the present incumbent faces the prospect of becoming the first president since Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs in a four-year term.
As Bush's term has followed the eight years of economic boom under Bill Clinton, the Hoover comparison is one that hurts.
It hands Democratic challenger John Kerry one of his strongest cards in the campaign.
It has been touch and go all year as to whether jobs growth, measured by monthly non-farm payrolls data, would be sufficiently rapid to save Bush from having to adopt the Hoover mantle.
But the low new jobs figure of 32,000 in July, compared with a Wall Street forecast of a 220,000 gain, combined with a downward revision of 50,000 to the jobs numbers of the previous two months, means Bush needs almost a quarter of a million new jobs a month between now and the end of the year to replace all the jobs lost since he took power in 2000.
He was walloped by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933, having presided over huge job losses and having shanty towns on the edge of cities dubbed "Hoovervilles".
The similarity to Bush, also a Republican, is that the present incumbent faces the prospect of becoming the first president since Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs in a four-year term.
As Bush's term has followed the eight years of economic boom under Bill Clinton, the Hoover comparison is one that hurts.
It hands Democratic challenger John Kerry one of his strongest cards in the campaign.
It has been touch and go all year as to whether jobs growth, measured by monthly non-farm payrolls data, would be sufficiently rapid to save Bush from having to adopt the Hoover mantle.
But the low new jobs figure of 32,000 in July, compared with a Wall Street forecast of a 220,000 gain, combined with a downward revision of 50,000 to the jobs numbers of the previous two months, means Bush needs almost a quarter of a million new jobs a month between now and the end of the year to replace all the jobs lost since he took power in 2000.
The Guardian article goes on to analyze the job situation, the high price of gas in the U.S., Bush's tax cuts, and Kerry's should-be advantage, concluding...
So, given the state of the economy and the fact that only the rich have really benefited from the Bush tax cuts, the really puzzling thing about all of this is why Mr Bush is still neck-and-neck with Mr Kerry in the opinion polls.
Go figger.
Maybe Americans are masochistic idiots. Maybe we're more concerned about gay marriage than the economy. And, then again, maybe the polls aren't accurate. Kind of like the polls in Venezuela, both in the opposition-owned media and under the auspices of a U.S. polling firm.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!