K S Venkataraman

E-mail:  ThePatrika@aol.com

In the wake of articles in the April and July issues of the magazine on President Trump’s presidency, one reader was quite upset and penned this e-mail:

Editor:

Shame on Patrika becoming anti-Trump mouth piece for Indian Diaspora in the Allegheny County. U.S. economy return 4.1% growth and now average 3.1% growth for the last six months.  U.S. economy couldn’t rise above the 2.2% doldrums of the Obama years.  Tax reform broke the bottleneck on capital mobility and investment from the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. Tax reform and deregulations have lifted U.S. Economy from Obama/Clinton doldrums.

Stop playing identity politics or caste politics like Democratic Party. 

Jay Goonetilleke

Former GOP Candidate in West Mifflin

In all democracies, when the stock market, the GDP growth rates  and unemployment numbers do well, the presidents/prime ministers and the ruling parties take credit, whether they deserve it or not, or whether they had anything to do with these numbers are not. Similarly, when these numbers go southward, opposition parties leave no opportunity to berate the ruling establishments for their gross negligence in not paying attention to “the pain and suffering of the ordinary, hard-working citizens.”

As we all know, changes in these numbers (upward or downward) have multiple contributing factors, some domestic, and others, on account of events and trends occurring in overseas. Very often, the ruling establishment have no influence over these events, not to speak of any control.

Discerning readers and those in the know of the rules of engagement in politics know that this strategy is how the game of politics is played.       

When Trump and his supporters take credit for economy doing good  (as the writer above does) under his watch (whether he has anything to do with it or not), they should extend the same courtesy to Obama, again whether Obama is directly responsible for these numbers or not. 

So, we feel compelled to share with readers some of the general observations we have already published earlier on the eight years of the Obama Administration and the two years under Trump. 

Since most of the readers of the magazine are college-educated, I present these observations as charts in the hope and expectations that readers can read these charts and make their own judgments:

On the Dow-Jones Average:

On Unemployment Rates:

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