So I'm watching Kudlow & Company yesterday on CNBC.

[Lasher]

His show is always exactly the same. Kudlow saying over and over again in that whiney voice, how great the economy is doing thanks to the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts. Then he has fellow lapdogs of the wealthy elite on the program, who all nod agreement with his fairy tales. This guy gets a woodie just thinking about even more tax cuts for rich people as the solution to everybody's problems.

What planet is Kudlow from? He said all major stock indices are up. Hasn't he even noticed that the stock market is taking a huge dump right now? Has anybody told him that we added only 800,000 total jobs during 2001 thru 2004, and the average annual growth for the prior 20 years was 2.1 million?

So OK I looked at annual S&P 500 performance. I used the closing price on the last trading day of each year and punched that into a spreadsheet. I did not adjust for inflation. I included 2007 by taking the midyear gain and doubling it, which is pretty charitable because it excludes the July - August crash. Know what I got?

S&P 500 average annual gain for Junior's 7 years in office (2001 thru 2007): 3.93%

Average for Clinton's 8 years (remember, he raised top marginal rates): 15.86%

Average for all presidents, Carter thru Clinton (1977 to 2000): 11.86%

I have concluded that Kudlow & Company is nothing but an infomercial, selling the notion that it's a great idea to cut taxes for rich people at everyone else's expense.

[rfranklin]

1. He is a delusional cheerleader for the discredited philosophy...

of the "Free Marketeers." These are the same idiots who believed that Iraq was going to be a capitalist utopia where their philosophy would shine and all the world would gasp in awe, realizing that yes, Heaven on Earth had come to be in Iraq where there were no regulations, no taxes, and no penalties for screwing over your fellow man. The invisible hand of the market would make everything wonderful. And it all came true didn't it?

[screembloodymurder]

3. I don't normally watch, but lately I've tuned in to watch him choke on his supply-side spittle.

I'm hoping for an on-screen aneurysm. That would be a Laffer.

[Lasher]

5. Heh heh. Laffer.

Lately he's been getting even more whiney, eh?

[Lasher]

4. It's so obvious he's beating a dead horse.

Just like you say. I was wondering how he manages to stay on the air but I guess the Waltons and Hiltons are taking care of that for him. Or maybe it's a comedy show.

[TheFarseer]

2. I've always marveled at how poorly we are doing

considering the tax cuts and the deficit spending. Has an economy ever been run worse than this?

[Lasher]

6. Yeah, it's like a family that can't afford to go to the movies while maxing out their credit cards.

An economy might have been run worse than this but certainly not in my lifetime.

[mwb970]

7. Kudlow is firmly in the always-wrong group.

He's in there with Kristol and Cheney, the two top always-wrongers we've got.