Originally Posted by
LDAHL
I've always been somewhat skeptical of attaching much credit or blame for swings in the economy to presidents. It's almost a sort of cargo cult mentality, attributing mystical powers to an individual rather than the billions of daily decisions made by millions of people (and increasingly, their machines). Was Mr. Obama really our savior in 2009? Do the financial markets really turn on Mr. Trump's tweets? I think presidents, along with many other individuals and institutions, can influence events, but generally not directly or immediately. It takes a lot of bad decisions by a lot of people over time to create a financial crisis, for instance.