(2008-09-08) Felzenberg President Rankings

In discussing John McCain's distrust of Economist-s, Stephen J Dubner notes Alvin Felzenberg's new book The Leaders We Deserved ISBN:0465002919 which rank US President-s by a variety of criteria, including economic. According to Felzenberg, there have been four excellent economic presidents in U.S. history: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Seven more did quite well: James K Polk, William Mc Kinley, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. The worst economic presidents according to Felzenberg's methodology were James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Martin Van Buren, and Jimmy Carter.

Would like to see his bit on FDR. Amazon's Search Inside feature gives you that on p208. Summary: War-related defense expenditures, and expansion of money supply to "pay" for them, saved the economy. His previous actions only made the Great Depression worse/longer. He thought competition was a bad thing, that the Free Market would inevitably have UnEmployment and stagnation, so he focused on redistribution of income and reduction of competition (through his forced industry consolidation, etc.). While the Great Depression was a worldwide phenomenon, the US was one of the last countries to recover from its ravages.

A good summary from John Fund, and a good interview with the author.