Did Obama Really Prevent A Second Great Depression?

From Investors Business Daily:

IBD reviewed records of economic forecasts made just before Obama signed the stimulus bill into law, as well as economic data and monthly stimulus spending data from around that time, and reviews of the stimulus bill itself.

The conclusion is that in claiming to have staved off a Depression, the White House and its supporters seem to be engaging in a bit of historical revisionism.

Economists weren't predicting a Depression.

White House economists forecast in January 2009 that, even without a stimulus, unemployment would top out at just 8.8% — well below the 10.8% peak during the 1981-82 recession, and nowhere near Depression-era unemployment levels.

Any bets on whether the MSM will fact-check Obama?

But was the economy in worse shape than everyone thought? 

But various indicators show that the economy had pretty much hit bottom at the end of 2008 — a month before President Obama took office.

Monthly GDP, for example, stopped free-falling in December 2008, long before the stimulus kicked in, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. (See nearby chart.) Monthly job losses bottomed out in early 2009 while the Index of Leading Economic Indicators started to rise in April.

So why is the economy in the doldrums, unemployment over 9% and the spectre of America become a larger Greece on everyone's lips?

Obama's policies are designed to stop economic recovery in its tracks. Whether be design, stupidity or ideology there is no way out except the removal of this administration. I can't wait for 2012 to get here.