Back when “Gunsmoke” was on TV and Lyndon Johnson was president, the United States economy managed to storm ahead by nearly 5 percent a year for nearly a decade. What we would give to recover some of that power!
During Ronald Reagan’s presidency two decades later, the rise in the economic cycle, coming out of what was then the worst downturn in the post-World War II era, averaged a bit over 4 percent a year. By the time George W. Bush lived in the White House, the rebound from recession delivered an average growth rate of under 3 percent.
You want to know how much bounce it has now? In the seven years since the United States emerged from the Great Recession under President Obama, annual growth has averaged just about 2 percent.
– The New York Times