Who was the best President in the last 40 years? (excluding Obama)

[Bo]

I'd say Ford, simply because he was no screwups under his watch. In contrast, the other Presidents had:

Nixon-Watergate
Carter-Hyperinflation, hostage crisis
Reagan-Extremely fiscally irresponsible
Bush Sr.-Extremely fiscally irresponsible
Clinton-Miserable screwup on healthcare, allowed GOP to recapture Congress
Bush Jr.-Iraq, Katrina, financial crisis, extremely fiscally irresponsible

[Bo]

Carter-Hyperinflation, hostage crisis

He didn't have hyperinflation. 20% annual inflation is definitely bad, but it doesn't warrant that term. Also he appointed Volcker who wound up reining that in within a few years.

If you want, replace the term hyperinflation with "rapidly rising inflation" or "double digit-inflation". My point still stays the same, though. And that Volcker appointment came way too late. Inflation increased for the first 3 years of Carter's watch, and then only started decreasing in 1980 when it was already at very high levels. Inflation was already a problem when Carter entered office (at 5%), yet even though it started increasing as soon as Carter got into office, he essentially ignored it for 3 years. I would call that a large screwup on his part.

[Bo]

Clinton and carter were the best presidents before obama, and after nixon. Just goes to show that you don't have to do much to look better than a republican president.

Ford>Carter

[Bo]

Clinton and carter were the best presidents before obama, and after nixon. Just goes to show that you don't have to do much to look better than a republican president.

Ford>Carter

how so?

Carter, unlike Ford, failed to handle inflation or reduce the inflation rate under his Presidency. Also, Carter failed in handling the Iranian hostage crisis.

[Bo]

Clinton and carter were the best presidents before obama, and after nixon. Just goes to show that you don't have to do much to look better than a republican president.

Ford>Carter

how so?

Carter, unlike Ford, failed to handle inflation or reduce the inflation rate under his Presidency. Also, Carter failed in handling the Iranian hostage crisis.

Carter did appoint Volcker, and secondly he had nothing to do with the supply shock of 1979. On the other hand ford was not president during a supply shock, or an unexpected increase in the inflation rate. Remember consumer inflation is primarily a problem if it is unexpected like it was in 74, and 79.

Inflation began increasing under Carter at the beginning of 1977. He only appointed Volcker two years later.

[Bo]

Clinton and carter were the best presidents before obama, and after nixon. Just goes to show that you don't have to do much to look better than a republican president.

Ford>Carter

how so?

Carter, unlike Ford, failed to handle inflation or reduce the inflation rate under his Presidency. Also, Carter failed in handling the Iranian hostage crisis.

Carter did appoint Volcker, and secondly he had nothing to do with the supply shock of 1979. On the other hand ford was not president during a supply shock, or an unexpected increase in the inflation rate. Remember consumer inflation is primarily a problem if it is unexpected like it was in 74, and 79.

Inflation began increasing under Carter at the beginning of 1977. He only appointed Volcker two years later.

ok, but when did inflation primarily become a problem?

Depends who you're asking. Considering it was 5% at the start of 1977 and began rising again at that point, it could be argued that inflation started becoming a serious problem again in early 1977.

[Bo]

Clinton and carter were the best presidents before obama, and after nixon. Just goes to show that you don't have to do much to look better than a republican president.

Ford>Carter

how so?

Carter, unlike Ford, failed to handle inflation or reduce the inflation rate under his Presidency. Also, Carter failed in handling the Iranian hostage crisis.

Carter did appoint Volcker, and secondly he had nothing to do with the supply shock of 1979. On the other hand ford was not president during a supply shock, or an unexpected increase in the inflation rate. Remember consumer inflation is primarily a problem if it is unexpected like it was in 74, and 79.

Inflation began increasing under Carter at the beginning of 1977. He only appointed Volcker two years later.

ok, but when did inflation primarily become a problem?

Depends who you're asking. Considering it was 5% at the start of 1977 and began rising again at that point, it could be argued that inflation started becoming a serious problem again in early 1977.

what was the difference between each year. For example during the oil shock inflation rose more dramatically.

The yearly averages were 5.8, 6.5, 7.6, 11.3, and 13.5 for 1976, 77, 78, 79, and 80 respectively. Also, inflation increased by 1.5% between the start and end of 1977, 2.2% for 1978, 4.0% for 1979, and actually decreased 1.4% in 1980.

Here is the link for my data:

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

So it appears that the Iranian Revolution and resulting oil shock might have accelearated the rise of inflation, but even before the Iranian Revolution and oil shock, inflation was already at/near double-digits, which is double what it was (5%) at the start of Carter's Presidency.

[Bo]

Clinton and carter were the best presidents before obama, and after nixon. Just goes to show that you don't have to do much to look better than a republican president.

Ford>Carter

how so?

Carter, unlike Ford, failed to handle inflation or reduce the inflation rate under his Presidency. Also, Carter failed in handling the Iranian hostage crisis.

Carter did appoint Volcker, and secondly he had nothing to do with the supply shock of 1979. On the other hand ford was not president during a supply shock, or an unexpected increase in the inflation rate. Remember consumer inflation is primarily a problem if it is unexpected like it was in 74, and 79.

Inflation began increasing under Carter at the beginning of 1977. He only appointed Volcker two years later.

ok, but when did inflation primarily become a problem?

Depends who you're asking. Considering it was 5% at the start of 1977 and began rising again at that point, it could be argued that inflation started becoming a serious problem again in early 1977.

what was the difference between each year. For example during the oil shock inflation rose more dramatically.

The yearly averages were 5.8, 6.5, 7.6, 11.3, and 13.5 for 1976, 77, 78, 79, and 80 respectively. Also, inflation increased by 1.5% between the start and end of 1977, 2.2% for 1978, 4.0% for 1979, and actually decreased 1.4% in 1980.

Here is the link for my data:

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

So it appears that the Iranian Revolution and resulting oil shock might have accelearated the rise of inflation, but even before the Iranian Revolution and oil shock, inflation was already at/near double-digits, which is double what it was (5%) at the start of Carter's Presidency.

was inflation primarly a political issue due to the oil shocks? Steady increase in the inflation rate are fine,but if inflation increases at abnormal pace than it is usually a problem. For example inflation could increase anywhere from 2-3% per year, but if the increase breaks from that trend than investors will start to lose out.

From what I learned in my Econ class, a inflation rate above 4 or 5% is bad news economically, regardless of whether it continues to increase at a constant pace or not.

[Bo]

Ronald Reagan.  Not only was he the best of the last 40 years, but, IMHO, the greatest in the past 221 years (when President George Washington took office).  Ronald Reagan was a great leader because he defined the conservative movement, which has sadly been taken to the extreme.  He was in the White House when I was born, so I'm a bit biased.  He is also credited with helping to dissolve the USSR and put an end to the Cold War.  Even though the Cold War didn't officially end until President George H. W. Bush's term in 1991, Ronald Reagan is largely credited with ending it and even that early in his administration.  He, Margaret Thatcher, and Mikhail Gorbachev were the instrumental leaders in bringing down the Soviet Union.  The relations with Russia still have never been grandioso in the 20 years since the dissolution of USSR.

It is true that Reagan wasn't the greatest at handling the economy and did make some boneheaded fiscal decisions that led to the Crash of 1987, but socially and internationally, his policies were pretty darn good.  The only president that comes close to Reagan is Clinton whose star started rising during the Reagan administration.

Reagan had almost nothing to do with the end of the Cold War. Telling Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall wasn't what made Gorbachev tear it down at the end. Gorbachev deserves almost all the credit for ending the Cold War, for he was the one who liberalized the Soviet system and thus allowed it to collapse. In terms of foreign policy, Reagan is way overrated. He just continued his predecessors' foreign policy with tougher rhetoric.

[Bo]

Yea I bet alot of people really miss the Carter economy. Our hostages loved his presidency as well I'm sure.  Gosh how did Reagan even win? Hmm. See those results are when you know it's not credible.

A lot of people miss the economy Carter's policies created that Reagan took credit for.

Stop

Libertas is right, at least somewhat. Reagan took credit for reducing the inflation rate, while in reality the Fed Chairman who reduced infaltion (Volcker) was appointed by Carter. I agree that Carter should have been more responsible about the economy while he was in office, though.