Unlikely Words

So, this is really interesting and kind of weird. Phillipa Dunne and Doug Henwood have found significant correlations between a variety of economic indicators and the party that controls the presidency. (Well, I should be careful about saying “significant correlations”—the post doesn’t seem to have enough information for me to tell if these differences are statistically significant or not.) Anyway, it’s interesting. In sum:

Since Franklin Roosevelt’s third term (1941–44), Democrats have generally presided over faster growth and stronger stock markets than Republicans; Republican administrations have been friendlier for disinflation and the bond market. Also, Republicans tend to preside over recessions early in their terms, with growth accelerating as time passes; Democrats tend to preside over earlier accelerations followed by slowdowns as the term matures.

I don’t have a hypothesis that explains this at the moment, but it ought to shake up the conventional wisdom a bit. Click though and look at the bar graphs, they tell a great story.

Via DeLong and Yglesias.

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