Synopses & Reviews
The President as Economist: Scoring Economic Performance from Harry Truman to Barack Obama provides eye-opening insights about matters of critical importance for the future of the United States. Author Richard J. Carroll tackles a topic that he has researched and been focused on for more than 20 years, providing impartial assessments and rankings of each presidential administration according to numerous key performance indicators—quantitative data, not subjective opinions. The final chapter combines all of the data to present a numeric score (Presidential Performance Index-PPI) for each administration that allows an overall ranking of the 11 presidents.
The analysis covers 66 years of U.S. economic history, ranging from 1946 through 2011. The earlier administrations of Harry S. Truman through Jimmy Carter set the context against which more recent presidencies are judged. This title will be an invaluable resource for everyone from general readers to students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, as well as journalists, lobbyists, and anyone directly or indirectly involved in the political process.
Review
"In an election year, a simple measure for evaluating the economic performance of US presidents is alluring. This
effort updates the author's earlier work, An Economic Record of Presidential Performance: From Truman to Bush (CH, Jul'96, 33-6402). Carroll's evaluation method is simple but subjective. . . . Summing Up: Recommended." - Choice
Synopsis
This book provides evaluations of American presidents over the course of 66 years of U.S. economic history, using quantitative data to provide credible, defensible answers to controversial questions like "Whose economic policies were more effective, Ronald Reagan's or Bill Clinton's?"
Synopsis
• Provides credible presidential rankings that American citizens can use to make smarter political choices that could affect the nation's ability to extricate itself from the Great Recession
• Presents desperately needed additional analysis—not opinion—on the public political debate to enable Americans to understand the context of our policy-making and be less easily swayed by ideology and platitudes
• Reveals the strengths and weaknesses of both Republicans and Democrats in specific areas
Synopsis
• An appendix provides the official data upon which the rankings are based