Presidents and Prosperity
Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:27 pm
DAR
From Forbes.
***
Presidents And Prosperity
Dan Ackman, 07.20.04, 3:00 PM ET
The death of Ronald Reagan and the popularity of Bill Clinton's book have sparked an unusually intense interest in presidents past.
During the week of his funeral, several commentators declared Reagan the best president of the 20th century, even better than Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Reagan himself admired. A recent Gallup Organization poll indicates that Americans rank John F. Kennedy slightly ahead of FDR, and both of them ahead of Reagan. Clinton supporters, meanwhile, note that he turned large federal deficits into surpluses and presided over a booming economy.
It's the kind of argument that will never be settled, like who was a better ballplayer, Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle. But we took a look at the numbers, and for the money, among presidents since World War II, Clinton scores highest.
Clinton's two terms in office (1993-2001) were marked by strong numbers for gross domestic product (GDP) and employment growth and especially for deficit reduction. His overall ranking puts him first among the ten postwar presidents--ahead of Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy and Reagan, who were tightly grouped behind the 42nd president and recent autobiographer.
Postwar Presidencies Ranked By Six Measures Of Economic Performance, Where 1 Is Best.
CLICK HERE TO SEE CHART
To create our rankings we looked at six measures of economic performance--GDP growth, per capita income growth, employment gains, unemployment rate reduction, inflation reduction and federal deficit reduction--for each of the ten postwar presidencies. For each measure we looked at whether the situation improved or got worse, and we ranked the presidents from 1 to 10. We then averaged the ranks to come up with a final score.
DAR
Democrats have the top three slots:
1) Clinton
2) Johnson
3) Kennedy
Republicans the bottom three slots:
8) Nixon
9) Eisenhower
10) Papa Bush
The middle is mixed, demos on bottom:
4) Reagan
5) Ford
6) Carter
7) Truman
If we add them up, lower numbers (higher to the top) is better, we get:
Demos: 19
Repubs: 36
Forbes article
From Forbes.
***
Presidents And Prosperity
Dan Ackman, 07.20.04, 3:00 PM ET
The death of Ronald Reagan and the popularity of Bill Clinton's book have sparked an unusually intense interest in presidents past.
During the week of his funeral, several commentators declared Reagan the best president of the 20th century, even better than Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Reagan himself admired. A recent Gallup Organization poll indicates that Americans rank John F. Kennedy slightly ahead of FDR, and both of them ahead of Reagan. Clinton supporters, meanwhile, note that he turned large federal deficits into surpluses and presided over a booming economy.
It's the kind of argument that will never be settled, like who was a better ballplayer, Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle. But we took a look at the numbers, and for the money, among presidents since World War II, Clinton scores highest.
Clinton's two terms in office (1993-2001) were marked by strong numbers for gross domestic product (GDP) and employment growth and especially for deficit reduction. His overall ranking puts him first among the ten postwar presidents--ahead of Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy and Reagan, who were tightly grouped behind the 42nd president and recent autobiographer.
Postwar Presidencies Ranked By Six Measures Of Economic Performance, Where 1 Is Best.
CLICK HERE TO SEE CHART
To create our rankings we looked at six measures of economic performance--GDP growth, per capita income growth, employment gains, unemployment rate reduction, inflation reduction and federal deficit reduction--for each of the ten postwar presidencies. For each measure we looked at whether the situation improved or got worse, and we ranked the presidents from 1 to 10. We then averaged the ranks to come up with a final score.
DAR
Democrats have the top three slots:
1) Clinton
2) Johnson
3) Kennedy
Republicans the bottom three slots:
8) Nixon
9) Eisenhower
10) Papa Bush
The middle is mixed, demos on bottom:
4) Reagan
5) Ford
6) Carter
7) Truman
If we add them up, lower numbers (higher to the top) is better, we get:
Demos: 19
Repubs: 36
Forbes article