The Obama administration and its apologists, including many in
the media, keep telling us that the Great Recession was the
worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and that is why
the recovery has been so anemic. Is that true? When President
Obama took office, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent. When
President Reagan took office in 1981 the unemployment rate was
7.5 percent. Reagan came into office during a double-dip
recession (gross domestic product: -0.3 in 1980 and -1.9 in
1982). When Mr. Obama was sworn in the economy was in recession
(GDP: -0.3 in 2008 and -3.5 in 2009), but the recession had
bottomed out by the second quarter of 2009 before his “stimulus”
took effect. The unemployment rate reached 10.8 percent in the
1982 recession, but only 10 percent in the 2009 recession. When
Reagan reached the Oval Office the inflation rate was 12
percent. In contrast, when Mr. Obama assumed office, the
inflation rate was zero percent. Reagan was faced with the
problems of slaying the dragon of inflation