ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Alan Greenspan, National Bureau Of Economic Research
Document Summary
Unlike the first bush, clinton was a lucky guy (politically speaking of course). Just as poor economic performance began as soon as bush took office, the economy started to look better as soon as clinton took office (far too early for clinton"s policies to be responsible). Unemployment began to fall in the summer before clinton took office and continued to fall down to approximately 4 percent late in his presidency. Inflation was very low: 1. 5 2. 5% This period now ranks as the longest expansion in u. s. history. Many economists believed the long-term trend growth rate of the economy was around 3 percent, but growth in the late 1990s was usually well above this level. (annualized real gdp growth from 1995 to 2000 was about 4. 3%. ) Indeed, many economists encouraged the fed to raise interest rates because they believe inflation was about to break out due to such low unemployment.
