That Old Economic Genius

How often have you read a newspaper article telling you how the great Paul Martin has been your economic saviour? Well it turns out that he wasn't as sharp as your government or the media would have had you believe:

The financial well-being of Canadians has barely advanced in the past 15 years, even though we're working harder than ever, says a new study by Don Drummond, chief economist of TD Bank.

The economy has steadily grown over that period, yet the take-home pay of the average Canadian has hardly budged, Mr. Drummond said in the study released Tuesday.

...

The average Canadian worker is only about 3.6 per cent better off now than they were 15 years ago — “that's virtually nothing, really,” Mr. Drummond said in an interview.

“Extra effort doesn't necessarily make you feel better off and taxes have been going up so much faster than your before-tax income,” he added.

One of Paul Martin's strong points going into the last federal election was his supposed outstanding job of managing our economy. Well that like many other things was apparently nothing but a lie. Surprise!

This makes me think of the media response to economic conditions under the last two American presidents. Under G.W. Bush as 5.4% unemployment rate is reason enough to predict the end of the world. Under Bill Clinton of course the same rate of unemployment is reason enough to predict everlasting prosperity and unending happiness.

I'm not really surprised though that things would be any different up here. The media makeup in Canada nearly exactly mirrors that of the US. The major media players are dominated by liberals with a few conservatives thrown in to show their impariality.

And since when did it become 'brilliant' to just manage to keep the economy from shrinking over a 15 year period? I wonder if any of the editorialists who told us what a wonderful job Martin was doing with our money will write an 'Oops I Screwed Up' editorial anytime soon?