I'm hesitant to give Obama credit, but I think Trump claiming that the unemployment rate was 30, 40, 50% during the election and immediately taking credit for the unemployment numbers in january 2017 was so disingenuous that it truly boggles the mind. Anyone that gives Trump credit for the current trajectory of unemployment numbers is beyond the pale.

Giving Obama credit to me is at the very least questionable - things were at rock bottom, they could almost only go up (and I supported Obama). There are so few absolutes to hold on to in terms of economic indicators for the layperson, but its hard to see how the Obama years were an economic catastrophe, and unfortunately we'll never know what the effect of a larger stimulus might have been (or no stimulus for that matter).

Am I being downvoted for being too partisan or not partisan enough?

Probably both. A balanced view is not acceptable.

You said it. Politicians, scientists & marketeers know it. Us vs. Them has long served those who would divide, conquer & pillage...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-political-bra...

Trump called the labor non participition rate, about 38%, the true unemployment rate. That would include his wife and three of his five children ...

This is inaccurate. People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not considered part of the labor force. For instance this would include retired persons, students, people taking care of children or other family members, and those who have no desire at all to work. Here [1] is a brief on the reasons people are not counted.

[1] - https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-4/people-who-are-not-in-...

Source? People tend to put much more thoughtful words in his mouth after the fact trying to make what he says seem more reasonable, but if you have a source I'd gladly review it.

In the meantime, politifact has a good breakdown of what he says about the issue and where the numbers come from (spoiler, they make some wild assumptions) [1].

[1] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/...

Whatever Trump is doing will only have an impact later. Right now he is taking credit for what Obama did while at the same claiming they were bad.

The neat thing about macro scale dynamics (e.g. economics) is you can always choose to blame the current or previous powers, depending on which provides support for your political preferences.

> taking credit for what Obama did while at the same claiming they were bad.

Schrodinger's Obama Policies?

While I think Obama's economic policies were total crap, at least he had a partially-supported justification for his deficits. Trump has no excuse for his deficits, and his neo-Smoot-Hawley "reforms" are going to put us back in the same place that Smoot-Hawley did. He's reckless and out of control.

It's startling what the growth on my 401k has done since November 2016. Essentially flat for years before, then immediately jumping, once the election results were in. Q1 2018 was a bit sluggish, but it's back on that tragectory again.

Even outside the market, people are hiring again, companies are making investments, it's a hell of a turn around.

“People are hiring again”, any data to back this up? BLS seems to disagree:

- The United States added almost 3 million jobs in 2014, 2.7 million in 2015 and 2.2 million in 2016.

- The U.S. economy added 2 million jobs in 2017

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/05/news/economy/december-2017-j...

It's startling what my 401k/IRA did from 2012 to 2014: https://imgur.com/a/M7PZn2m

What's your point?

> then immediately jumping, once the election results were in.

So your long-term retirement investment fund which should span over 20+ years increased somewhat drastically over a small percentage of it's perceived lifetime. Why is that superbly beneficial for long term fund performance?

> Even outside the market, people are hiring again

When did they stop hiring? Source data?

The stock market has being going sup since 2009 or so. Sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower. Look at a logarithmic chart and you will see that trend from 2009 to now. Same for unemployment. The rate has steadily gone down from 2010 on. There was no turn around in 2016.

You must have had your 401k with a terrible bank then.

>Essentially flat for years before

You must be a terrible investor then, the DOW under Obama went from ~7,000 to 18,000, unemployment fell from 10% to 5%, nearly 20 million gained healthcare under the ACA, and the economy gained 11.6 million jobs. Obama's numbers blow Trump's away.