re: US economy grew at fast 5 pct. annual rate in Q3, best in 11 years

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It's going to be awesome when Obama leaves office and just about everything's better than when he took office, and Republicans have to explain that.

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I mean, other than our standing in the world.

Which is saying something considering we had two wars going on when he took office and people in countries nobody from America goes to were naming businesses after him.

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I'm not a fan of Obamas but damn this is true. I think he's one of the worst presidents we've ever had but he has done some good things and clearly something is working.

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Get real. What good things has he done? It's not like he's some pro-growth president. To be honest, he really hasn't initiated some major changes in policy thanks in part to the gridlock in Washington.

How much of that has been healthcare insurance expansion due to Obamacare and how much has been part-time wage jobs restricted because of Obamacare mandates on businesses which is growth but not long term growth potential. When the economy gets rough those part time spots get cut or full time gets cut and replaced with part time. Not to mention long term costs of Obamacare and how it will effect our economy in the future.

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The reality is that the president generally has a minimal impact on the fundamentals of the economy.

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I agree with you, but the Republican line for the last 6 years has been "Obama is the worst leader ever in the history of the galaxy".

After it's all said and done, and he's been out of office for a while, his term is going to look pretty good. Of course, it isn't perfect, but you can't deny that the economy turned around during his presidency.

You're getting away from the point. I'm not upset with him for not doing anything. I'm asking what you think the "good things" he has done are. In my view, a president can hurt an economy, but not really help it, other than from a demand perspective, through declaring war.

I haven't read into what the reasons are in this uptick, but I'd imagine a lot of it has to do with cheap natural gas spurring an industrial renaissance that has occurred over the past 5 years and will continue to happen.

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All thanks goes to our glorious and all knowing emperor. Hail Obama!

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Let me get this right, just so I am following the party line. Good things happen in spite of Obama, Bad things happen because of Obama. Does that about sum it up?

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Let me get this right, just so I am following the party line. Good things happen in spite of Obama, Bad things happen because of Obama. Does that about sum it up?

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You hit the nail on the head there sonny.

Let's rewind 6 or 7 years...

If you were given 2 choices in the depth of the recession - just as Obama took office:

a.) By 2014 the stock market would be fully recovered and unemployment down to 5ish% (even with under-employment and participation rate problems)

b.)take your chances and see what happens

Every single one of you/us would take option A

Look that number is an aberration. The economy in this country is not depressed, but it is somewhat stagnant.

I can tell you from our family experience exactly what happened in the huge up revision.

Companies, under the cover of the ACA bill, vastly revised their healthcare plans to the high deductible combined with HSA accounts. An example is contribution in 2014 of $1500 for family plans and $750 for single plans. Employee makes contributions to HSA also. However the money was deposited over quarters by employers. Thus, combined with employee contributions, it took several months to build up enough money to actually fund the HSA.

Our plan called for 1 check up a year free of deductible, but as employees found out, there were fine print items involved and the free check up turned out to cost hundreds of dollars. In April a check up ended up costing $300 bucks.

As employees exchanged information, people began delaying their visits to doctors in order to build up the HSA and use pre tax dollars and company contributions to pay. A dermatology visit was deferred until June, so that visit caused a thousand bucks spent in June. Americans were delaying Dr. visits by a few months. I can see why Health care surged in the 3rd quarter.

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well I tend to agree with this statement, I will say if he had nothing to do it when its going well, he has no blame when it does poorly

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And Bush isn't to blame for the crash in 08. The subprime mortgage crash falls on Clinton and then Congress not acting even after Bush urged them numerous times to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The student loan bubble will be the next one. Not everyone can afford a home, not everyone deserves to go to college.

I do think Obamas over regulation of business stifled the recovery and made it take longer, but the economy is largely independent in the long run. Policies usually only quicken or prolong recovery..business has to adapt when more regulations are put in place. When you deregulate, money and investments flow through business much quicker