June 27 (Bloomberg) -- As President Barack Obama has
learned, the economic conditions left by a previous
administration can be a heavy burden on a president’s record.
As I argue in my book, “The President as Economist: Scoring
Economic Performance from Harry Truman to Barack Obama,” about
half of any president’s economic performance depends on how much
he improved or damaged the economy he inherited (as shown by the
trends in economic indicators). The other half depends on how
many good economic years the president racked up while
in office (based on the averages of the same indicators).
