Yep, that time in the cycle again. I certainly hope by you posting this info here, you're not implying that George Bush had anything to do with the economic growth. Somehow, from reading your other posts, my guess is that's your intent.

PRESIDENTS DON'T CONTROL THE ECONOMY! Not Bush, Clinton, Carter, Reagan, any of them. They can make tiny blips in the overall giant sine wave of ups and downs but it's not our government that causes the giant ripple. It's us. Our cycle of collective greed and fear built deeply into all of us drives this nutty economy. When times get good, we don't simply enjoy the advantages. We go overboard. We overspend, overbuild, mortgage ourselves to the hilt. In about 5 to ten years the realization hits us that we've blown it. Our debt is overwhelming. We've hired too many workers, bought too many office toys, sent our kids to Harvard when we could've put them up at the state university at a fraction of the cost. So we start cutting back, pay off our staggering bills, actually save a little. All those businesses that relied on our open wallet suddenly have to do the same thing.

If a president or Congress tries to stave off the inevitable with tax cuts, artificially lowering interest rates they might add a year to length of the up of down cycle but all it eventually does is increase the severity of the next cycle. Best thing a president could do for us is to weekly get on the tv and tell us what idiots we all are thinking he can solve our economic problems for us.

As for me I simply make my economic choices based on what I see going on around me. I try to go opposite the giant cycle. If I see overgrowth, I get conservative and save a bit more. When the down cycle occurs I have cash for the buyer's market that comes with it. I plan the stocks funds that my 401k revolves around based on sitting back and watching the wacked out emotions of Wall Street. I love the wild swings. They're certainly not based on a true change in our overall economy but simply irrational panic and greed. It's easy to predict that panic and wishful thinking of those young type-A individuals worrying about their sports car payments.

Let's get off this economic blame game. If conservative or liberal ideaology and legislation truely affected our overall national economy the patterns of ups and downs would exactly match the controlling parties throughout the years. Jimmy Carter was no more to blame for his bad timing than Ronald Reagan was when the economy bottomed out in the end of his administration. Why any intelligent person would want to become president when the economy is due to sink is beyond me.