Posted by Shyam Moondra
The person who occupies the White House has enormous impact on how the country, and for that matter the world, fares. Below is a synopsis of what has happened during the recent presidencies and what could one expect during the Obama administration.
Ronald Reagan (1981-1988): The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased from 900 to 2,500 or 178%. President Reagan believed in smaller government, strong defense, and lower taxes. He introduced trickle-down economics, i.e., prosperity of the rich people will trickle down to the poor (George H. Bush called it "voodo economics"). Reagan's strong and decisive leadership and inspiring communications skills led to optimism on the Main Street and Wall Street. However, lower taxes combined with increased defense spending led to large budget deficits.
George H. Bush (1989-1992): The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased from 2,500 to 3,200 or 28%. Bush is noted for his successful execution of Desert Storm war campaign that led to the expulsion of Iraqis from Kuwait. However, Bush tried to reduce the deficit caused by Reagan's policies by increasing taxes, breaking his pledge of "read my lips - no new taxes" and lost his re-election bid. The Reagan momentum carried into the Bush presidency and the stock market went up to a new high, but huge budget deficit remained a big drag on Bush's presidency. Bush also suffered from his lack luster communications skills.
Bill Clinton (1993-2000): The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased from 3,200 to 11,000, or whopping 244%. Clinton brought more centrist style government. His practicality, competence, superior intellectual abilities, uncommon political skills, and superb communications skills enabled him to grow economy, strengthen national defense, turn budget deficit into budget surplus, and entice people to move off the welfare rolls and become productive working members of their communities. Clinton demonstrated what a pragmatic and non-ideology driven government can accomplish. Clinton shied away from rash decisions on using the military power. His more cautionary approach in foreign affairs enabled the U.S. to achieve its goals in Kosovo without overextending the military while keeping our alliances strong. Even though Clinton's second term was marred by the Monica Lewinsky affair, overall he showed that a smart government can make a big difference in people's lives.
George W. Bush (2001-2008): The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined from 11,000 to 8,800 or 20%. The Bush years were the most incompetent, incoherent, visionless, and destructive years in the history of the United States. He led a government based on ideology and stubbornness (even if he made a mistake, he would refuse to change the course). His administration represents one of the most corrupt administrations in our history - he appointed incompetent and unqualified people in important government positions as political payoffs that led to disastrous results as was evident from how badly his administration handled the Katrina disaster. The award of no-bid contracts and missing billions of dollars in Iraq show how pervasive was corruption in his administration. His overemphasis on deregulation and lack of enforcement by the SEC led to a complete breakdown of our economic system. He spent money like a drunken gambler and turned the biggest budget surplus into the largest budget deficit. He hurriedly pumped hundreds of billions of tax payers' money into the financial system, only to be misused by the corrupt financial institutions. Bush misled the country by using manufactured intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq that turned out to be a major blunder. He sacrificed thousands of American lives (many more wounded and now forced to live limbless lives) and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and he wasted $800 billions that could have been used right here to do good things for the American people. All of that was to get rid of Saddam Hussein, who, as Bush explained, "tried to kill my dad." This unnecessary war brought Al Qaeda to Iraq (and thus made us less secured) and fractured our alliances. Bush will go in the history as the worst president we ever had.
Barack Obama (2009-2016?): The Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to grow from 8,800 to 18,000, or 105%. Obama is already showing many of the presidential characteristics that will help restore confidence in the country's future and our prestige around the world. Obama's inspiring written and oral communications skills (often compared to those of Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan), his intellectual capacity and competence (often compared to those of Kennedy and Clinton), his emphasis on making life better for the low- and middle-class Americans (often compared to those of Roosevelt, Lincoln and Clinton), and his ability to think big (often compared to Lincoln who abolished slavery and Kennedy who called upon NASA to land a man on the moon). Obama, being a young man from the generation of Blackberry, e-mails, and YouTube, brings something new that is unprecedented - his strong belief in using technology to solve many of our problems. His focus on using green technologies to create new high-paying jobs and achieve energy independence, aggressively pursuing stem cell research to find cures for many diseases, and making extensive use of IT technologies to reduce the health care cost will help our economy start growing again. Obama represents a composite view of many of the desirable presidential characteristics, as exhibited by many of our past great presidents, that bode well for the future of our country.
