DU Economists

[malaise]

Which President built the greatest US economy

[msongs]

1. sorta depends on what greatest means - bill clinton most jobs and created a surplus

can't vouch for the accuracy

https://www.thebalance.com/job-creation-by-president-by-number-and-percent-3863218

[malaise]

3. Thanks

I know ir's not the Con

[Make7]

2. Not an economist, but I'd say FDR instituted the most important reforms.

There probably isn't a cut and dried answer to that question. (Like most things regarding economics.)

[rurallib]

5. I would agree with FDR

[JHB]

4. No, no, no! You have to specify how many hands the economists are allowed to have

On the one hand, on the other hand, on the grasping hand, on the....

[malaise]

10. ROFL

[underpants]

6. Snow

[ResistantAmerican17]

7. I have a counterintuitive offer. Lincoln (in the north) during the Civil War.

Industrialization swept the North. Manufacturing output skyrocketed, wages increased dramatically, employment was robust (albeit in large part because 2.1 million northern men served in the union army) and income from first ever graduated income taxes, war bonds, and greenbacks fueled the economy.

[Xolodno]

8. Just a Bachelors degree in Economics...along with..

...specializing in International Trade Economics and Environmental Economics. Wanted to go after my Masters, but I mis-read on how much the company actually covered for higher education in a year. So, next year, going to get a Certificate in Econometrics and then a Certificate on Game Theory. Working towards an analytics designation right now (get some more worthless letters behind my name).

With that being said, with such an open ended question like that....ask a 100 Economists...expect 300 answers.

[ResistantAmerican17]

9. Reminds me of a joke about economists the prof told in my Management of Complex Organizations class:

If you lay a hundred economists end to end they will all point in different directions. What do you think?

[Xolodno]

12. Oh, that sounds eerily similar to another joke, by Harry Truman...

...that was related to our class back in the day. He said, you can put two Economist, back to back, give them explicit instructions to travel straight around the globe....they will still never meet.

The basic science principles are very much sound...and always get us out of a jam, predict fairly accurately the implications, etc. But when you get to the philosophical side of it...oh dear lord. And if your argument is convincing, the science is lost and it becomes a practical religious ideology. For example, Monetarism, the basis for Trickle Down....and I guarantee you there are plenty of economist's who will still disagree with that, despite a number of bank bail outs, greater recessions, etc.

Shoot, you still have a few who advocate for a return to the gold standard (which is funny, had a strong Free Market Professor in college, this is what he thought of gold...."dig a hole in the ground to get a worthless metal...then dig another hole in the ground to put it in, then spend money to guard it".

[malaise]

11. Hehehehehe