Mr. Kinsley's articles, as a rule, are balanced, accurate and thoughtful; this one is no exception to that rule. This important analysis of economic numbers over the last half century compares numerical Democratic results with Republican results utilizing several important economic indices. Democrats provide superior economic leadership in all but one category. The numbers don't lie.

Using the President's Annual Economic Report, the writer tallies several economic indicators against the party of the President over the past 50 years. This rather simple analysis yields a good correlation of better economic performance under Democratic administrations. As the writer notes, correlation isn't causation but the analyis is interesting nevertheless.

This article is best taken as amusement, although it doesn't try to extrapolate from simple data to ridiculous conclusions. The author admits that presidents' economic policies may have less effect than extrinsic factors, and the statistics do not tell how well off any slice of the citizenry is at any one time. Further, the numbers are suspect because of the collection criteria; unemployment figures exclude large groups who aren't tracked, and spending is skewed by "off-budget" and "supplementary" items.

Another silly article along the lines that up is down. Of course raising taxes will be of great benefit to the economy - according to democrats who will stoop to any contortion to justify increasing taxes and expanding the government. Low tax economies do well and high tax economies don't, other things being equal.