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Obama and Bush came after Clinton pushed through the WTO stuff with China. Free trade most definitely had a positive factor in the economy in the next 16 years,
by seanmcdirmid 9mo ago
Obama and Bush came after Clinton pushed through the WTO stuff with China. Free trade most definitely had a positive factor in the economy in the next 16 years, even if tariffs still existed. A lot of the blowback from the Trumpers is that not everyone benefitted equally, not that the economy didnt benefit from it overall (ironically speaking they elected a billionaire due to equality issues).
- stinkbeetle 9mo agoRight, so my question is why did those enormous unemployment surges happen without the same kind of tariffs that Trump has? They certainly aren't a necessary trigger, could they even cause a major contribution? I think the true answer is that nobody really knows what pieces are in play let alone how they all interact -- very few economists predicted the housing crash. So when you see lists of things like this, who knows? It looks like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks.
- fuzzfactor 9mo agoI thought it was pretty obvious there was going to be a housing crash myself, there were actually quite a few very high rollers who agreed once we had discussed it a bit. Made plans with my elderly father to sell their resort home ASAP, it was the peak. A year later it was only worth half. Fortunately, I'm no economist ;)
- stinkbeetle 9mo agoYes it's interesting how obvious many of these things were obvious to people when you ask them to recount the details after the fact :)
- fuzzfactor 9mo agoNo doubt about that, "after the fact" is how all recessions have been officially recognized. It's always a crap-shoot, I just got lucky ;) Due to familiar "feelings" bubbling up from the massive shock so long ago.