Presidents and the economy: Who was best, worst? Take our quiz.

[RDS]

Obama seems to be doing pretty well.

Which US presidents had the best economic performance? It's a topic of endless debate, since presidents exercise limited control over the economy and their policies often don't bear fruit until the next administration. Still, presidents are judged at the ballot box by how well the economy performs under their watch. In a new book, "Bulls, Bears, and the Ballot Box," authors Bob Deitrick and Lew Goldfarb crunch the numbers for Herbert Hoover through George W. Bush. Separately, they have provided numbers for Barack Obama through Sept. 30, 2012. Their rankings are just one lens on a complex question. Can you guess who did best? Worst? Which party "created" more growth?

Presidents and the economy: Who was best, worst? Take our quiz. - shrink - CSMonitor.com

 

[Anagram]

I don't know why CSM insists on that terrible format for their quizzes. I burnt out after 30 questions and endless page loading and still only being half way done. A lot of work for a quiz over statistics that they admit in the intro are misleading.

 

[imagep]

I didn't do well on it, only about 50% correct before I gave up on it, but I would bet that the vast majority of our citizens wouldn't do much better than a quarter correct (which is what someone would get correct just by chance), and I would bet that most conservatives would have done worse than 25% - as most of them have bought into so many economic myths and lies.

 

[obvious Child]

I don't know why CSM insists on that terrible format for their quizzes. I burnt out after 30 questions and endless page loading and still only being half way done. A lot of work for a quiz over statistics that they admit in the intro are misleading.

Pagination needs to die. Now.

Furthermore, the Executive branch has relatively little influence over the economy. It's better to look at Congress.

 

[head of joaquin]

What they should have pointed out was that every single GOP president since Hover (except Reagan), every single one, left office with a higher unemployment rate than when the entered office. And every Democrat president, every one, left office with a lower unemployment rate than when the were elected. And Reagan barely squeaked by.

Slum dunk.