[img]/images/various_uploads/Carter_Gas_Pumps_Closed.jpg[/img]

I remember the glorious days of the people's car -- The AMC Pacer. Convenient extra-wide door that would last for at least two years before falling off. And you got your required exercise pushing it to the gas pump.Those were the days. If only the Orange Man could return us to that booming economy.

Joe Scarborough: Trump's So-Called Great Economy is WORSE than Jimmy Carter's ‘Year of Malaise'

Ah yes. The Carter years. 55 mph speed limits, no gas, America humiliated for a year and a half by Iran topped off by a botched rescue attempt that killed a bunch of Americans. Malaise, a shit economy and continuous scoldings from Pastor Carter. Billy Carter was entertaining. Alcoholics are always funny. And we gave away the Panama Canal.

It's a clever trick akin to an optical illusion that I see being increasingly and rather shamelessly used by the anti-Trumpers.

They like to compare the growth of the Trump economy last year to the growth of the Obama or Carter years, when the economy was trying to get out of the void.

The point here is that the larger the economy, the smaller the growth number becomes while producing the same or greater GDP.

When our current economy is at its record peak, even 1% growth is, in absolute terms, equivalent to a 5% growth for a much smaller economy coming out of a recession.

E.g., when China used to have a 10-15% GDP growth in the past couple of decades, that didn't mean its GDP was bigger than ours, it was still much smaller in absolute terms. Today China's economy is already much bigger than it was, and so its growth has dropped to 6% - but is it producing less than when it was 15%? No, it's producing more.

Similarly, the anti-trumpers gripe about the slowed rate of job growth compared to Obama years. Trump has already reached a record-low unemployment, and there's a natural floor for how much lower it can go. Under Obama the unemployment was a lot higher, so any positive fluctuation would produce a larger growth number, when in absolute terms the picture was still pretty dismal.

to illustrate, here's an optical illusion I drew for my Shakedown Socialism book. The money bags in this picture are exactly the same size, but when superimposed against a perspective, the one in the back seems much larger than the one in the front.


The same principle works for political figures. In another picture from my book, the three Lenins are of the same size, but they seem different because of the same optical effect. In our case, the three figures could be Carter in the back, Obama in the middle, and Trump at the front.

This is how the Carter economy may seem to be doing better - but only as an optical illusion. That means that Joe Scarborough and the rest of that crowd are either thick stupid or they are utterly shameless liars.

I remember double-digit inflation very well. Spiraling double-digit inflation. And Carter saying we don't know what causes inflation. It completely baffled him.

They were very bad times. The mood of the country was ugly and people thought that America was going down.

Red Square wrote:

That means that Joe Scarborough and the rest of that crowd are either thick stupid or they are utterly shameless liars.

Most Excellent post Comrade. Thick stupid and utterly shameless liars not being, of course, mutually exclusive sets.

Scarborough's effort to pro-up media's Democrat coalition and represents another grasp of air to remain relevant. Their illogical associations becomes nothing more than a shell game to fool the spectator as a way to shift mass discontent with progressivism.

Are you going to Scarborough's fair

fake press sage grows weary in time..."

Comrades who survived the Carter years appreciated their common suffering.
...Interest rates of 17% punished capitalist pig developers and bourgeoisie home owners.
...Fuel scarcity reduced wasteful travel.
...Iranian Comrades could hold hostages without fear of reprisal.

* * * Those Were The Glorious Malaise Days * * *

In other news, Venezuela remains a worker's paradise as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/worl ... llars.html

The NYT finds the dark cloud among the silver lining:

"But about half of all Venezuelans have no access to dollars."

hmmm. "No access to dollars"? Is that anything like a horrid economy?

"Caracas booming. Women and children hardest hit!"

Gas lines were friendly places to meet people

Jimmy boldly faced a crises in Iran


However, Time magazine thought otherwise...