Fyi I'm not totally a fan of Obama... I like him because of a few flourishes here and there (ending the use of torture, reaching a deal with Iran, opening relations with Cuba) but overall I'd say he's merely an above-average president. Ideologically I'm much closer to Bernie Sanders. That said, debate is fun so I'll stand up for Obama where I align with him.
As for the debt if you believe increasing the amount of debt is a good thing then you are giving into the IRS / Federal Reserve scam. As for Obama doing anything good for the stock market that is actually a lie.
Yes, I unabashedly think the Federal Reserve has been a net positive, although it depends who was running it.
Paul Volcker:
Ended runaway inflation by pushing interest rates sky-high. Even anti-Fed Ron Paul agrees that Volcker did good.
Alan Greenspan:
I don't hate him, and he piloted the institution reasonably well over the decades. But the housing bubble was a colossal mistake he is at least partially responsible for. Overall thumbs-down.
Ben Bernanke:
Took bold steps to bailout the American economy. Ben's graduate thesis and professorial work largely focus on the 1929 crash and great depression. He has spent
years thinking about how to respond to market crashes and ways to avoid depression. We're incredibly lucky that he was in office at the time of the financial crisis.
Janet Yellen:
In the words of Donald J Trump, "You know, I like her, I respect her. She's been here [in the Oval Office.] She's been in that seat. I do like the low interest rate policy."
In the 80s we were threatened by high inflation, but the looming threat today is
deflation. If you don't stave it off, deflation leads to the hoarding of cash, which causes bad case of inflation
later. Everyone has heard about hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic, but they don't often know that they had deflation first.
Many people who are anti-Fed prefer a gold standard to fiat currency. But gold has its problems too... because the supply is shared with other countries, they can muck with your economy.
In 1927, France started hoarding gold. They went from having 7% of the world supply, to having a
quarter of the world's supply. Naturally, the shortage of gold caused deflation everywhere that gold was used as a currency, including the US. By the time France's hoard peaked, the depression had started in earnest. What's really interesting is the clear trend - the earlier a country left the gold standard, the earlier their economy recovered. Japan was on a silver standard at the time and hardly experienced a depression at all. The wiki section on them is
pretty interesting.
1. Stock market literally almost crashed and completely flat line in 2008 after Obama was inaugurated as President.
2. Reason why Obama increased the debt at such a large rate of nearly $10 trillion is because he was bailing out businesses constantly.
1. Right, he took office during the financial crisis. It didn't crash
because he took office.
2. Obama increased the debt by a smaller percentage than W, which is impressive considering he started with an economy circling the bathtub drain.
What makes a $50 billion infusion of cash "good investment" and $80 billion a spooky "bailout"?
If you don't believe this. Pay attention to all the bills he has passed to bail out businesses. The economy has been living under a falsehood of constant bailouts under the passed 3 administrations and massive increases of debt. While food prices still keep going up and necessities become more and more less affordable, but more the while while non-necessities become more affordable, but have you bothered to ask the big question as to why?
Now, the thrust of this I agree with. Wages have not been keeping up with the cost of living, and healthcare is especially unafforable. The ACA is a heck of a band-aid, but it clearly has not solved the issue.
Neither party has done much to solve stagnant wages and a declining middle class. Choosing between Democrat and Republican can seem like "Do you want to get sold out? Or do you want to get sold out
on steroids?" In contrast with Sanders who (to me at least) truly seemed to be focusing on the American
people. *wistful sigh*
I could go all day with facts to be honest, but it comes down who you rather believe in. The fraud 2 party system and the past 3 administrations who have failed and done nothing for their entire times or believe in a administration that has already achieved nearly 30 of its campaign promises, which I can list for you if you want. In less than 6 months in office which is more than any of the passed 8 administrations could have done combined.
Well, I agree with not being happy with the two establishment parties, but Trump isn't turning out to be all that different. I actually would be interested in knowing which 30 promises he's achieved, because so far my impression is
this.
Your point about belief is really interesting. We definitely do get stuck in echo chambers. Even the photos of him are different:
Left 1,
Left 2,
Left 3,
Left 4,
Left 5,
Left 6,
Left 7
Right 1,
Right 2,
Right 3,
Right 4,
Right 5,
Right 6,
Right 7