Is Romney actually leading in the polls or are some people delusional?

[famousringo]

sethnintendo said:

famousringo said:

noname2200 said:
I've always thought holding a president responsible for an economy's failure or success is largely akin to older cultures lynching the village leader for a poor harvest or worshiping him for a great one.

But maybe that's just me.

Since the second world war, economic crises have become less frequent and less severe. That's thanks to central banks, welfare states,

Hasn't the USA had a meltdown about every 10 years though?  There was the oil crisis and hyper inflation, stock market crash in the late 80s, dot com bubble in the 90s, housing market crash in late 2000, etc.  There is a bubble every 10 years or so still.

The oil crisis wasn't the fault of the financial system, it was a result of foreign powers flexing their economic muscle to control the trade of a vital resource. Can't fault bankers if a bunch of oil barons start playing with their near-monopoly on oil exports.

The recession in the 80s and the dot com bubble were relatively minor economic disturbances compared to the recessions of the 19th century. Even the 2008 crisis is chump change compared to those days. This wikipedia article does a better job than the last one of illustrating my point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States

The subprime mortgage crisis is the worst crisis the US economy has faced since the end of the second great war, and it retarded the economy by 5.1%. This is still softer than every single recession the US economy faced in the 19th century, with estimated economic impacts ranging from 5.9% to 37.3%.