From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [IW] Bush scores last in [...] economy
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 13:23:29 GMT

  [This is a story from the Aug. 3rd _Inside Illinois_, the
  Faculty-Staff paper of the University of Illinois. The story is
  distributed with permission. (The paper is archived on-line via
  gopher. The newspaper's email address is inside-illinois@uiuc.edu.
  The editor's email address is mare@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu.) - Carl]

Bush scores last in survey evaluating how leaders affect economy

By Mark Reutter

George Bush would be well-advised to steer clear of the question
that Ronald Reagan posed with such success to Americans in his 1980
presidential bid against Jimmy Carter: "Are you better off now than
you were four years ago?" Bush's presidency comes in dead last in
a survey of "Presidents and Economic Performance" in a special
pre-election issue of Illinois Business Review just published by
the UI College of Commerce and Business Administration.  Evaluating
the economic well-being of the average U.S. worker during presidential
administrations beginning with that of John F. Kennedy, the survey
found that the Bush presidency has had "little to offer except
moderate inflation." "Under Bush, the nation suffered a contraction
in real per capita income and employment with annual average growth
rates of -0.9 percent and -0.2 percent respectively [for 1990 and
1991]. Unemployment rose over the same period. While in 1992 the
recovery is in progress, the upturn has been weak," wrote Stephen
F. Quinn, a research assistant in the UI's Bureau of Economic and
Business Research, which conducts surveys of the economy.  The Bush
record looks bleak even compared with the Carter years, which the
article rates as the second worst performing presidency on an
economic basis. Although inflation was high, employment did expand
under Carter and per capita income rose by 1.05 percent.  For the
average American, the best economic grades were scored by Kennedy.
"No administration since has matched Kennedy's combination of income
and job growth with low inflation and reduced taxes," according to
the article.  While the Reagan administration boasted 92 consecutive
months of economic growth, the income of the average U.S. worker
grew at only half the rate of the JFK period.  Other Illinois
Business articles that address the economy and presidential politics:

Michael Maciosek and Glenn Pebbles question whether America's
economic performance has fallen behind that of Japan and Germany.
While some U.S.  sectors have deteriorated, "manufacturing employment
since the early 1980s has expanded in both Japan and the United
States. We would be hard pressed to conclude that we are losing
manufacturing jobs to Japan," the authors wrote.

Susan McMaster reports that, contrary to many reports, the overall
poverty rate in America (including the elderly) decreased in the
1980s. She attributes the trend in part to Reagan policies that
helped expand employment, albeit in lower-paying occupations, and
the increase in entitlement programs for senior citizens.  McMaster,
Maciosek and Pebbles are UI doctoral students in economics.
--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Xref: sparky alt.politics.elections:12505 misc.education:3300