That’s the term used by economist D. Brady Nelson in this Townhall piece. He also advocates using new measure of the impact of federal economic policy on the well-being of Americans, the “personal burden formula.” Nelson observes that under the Obama regime, PBF initially rose substantially, but has somewhat abated in recent years.
Nelson’s conclusion: “The moral of the Reagan story versus that of Clinton-Bush Jr. – Obama is that bad economic policies of one’s predecessor must be quickly addressed with good ones (i.e., pro-market). There will be more pain for some at first (the pain being much shorter, the more markets are liberated), for much greater and sustained gain for most thereafter.” Unfortunately, most presidents try to fix the economic troubles they inherit by doubling down on the statism that is the root cause.
