Is the economy that Trump is being praised for, inherited from Obama?
The thing to remember is that there is some persistence in the economy.Do the best numbers we have indicate that the economy is better under Trump than under Obama in his last year? Yes.How much of that is Obama responsible for? It doesn’t really matter how much you want to attribute to Obama (see below). What is important is that it would be hard to argue reasonably that this portion would not go down with each passing month.So, everyone who is anti-Trump needs to be re-evaluating (the economic part of that) position every month, and considering if the evidence has now gotten strong enough to change their position.As a macroeconomist, and someone who does not like Trump, I’ll tell you that 6 quarters (going on 7) is getting on towards being a long time to be stubborn about this. At this point, I would not object if someone presumed the chances are now slim that this has much to do with Obama.N.B. Someone who’s really zealous might say that it’s all Obama because president’s change everything forever. You don’t want to go there, because then you could say that Bush was responsible for Obama’s economy. You can argue for a lot of persistence from a president’s policies, but not permanence.
Describe how the government calculates the unemployment rate?
They are two ways in principle. 1. use the census data. 2. use the database collecting people's claims for the unemployment benefits.
Is it true that Democrats in 2008 controlled both House and Senate plus presidency?
until 2011 when Republicans met for the first time after elections having gained control in the House? Doesn't the budget start in the House and then passes to the Senate to vote or squash? I don't understand how Democrats blame congress for Obama's failed promises when democrats had BOTH House and Senate until 2011.... and still Democrats have Senate and presidency. Does this make sense?