President Trump says he’s presiding over “the greatest economy in the history of the U.S.”  But is it really? There have been times when unemployment was lower, wage growth faster, productivity stronger. Then there’s the rising national debt, currently at a post-war record 80 percent of GDP and set to rise above 98 percent by 2030.

That said, people seem pretty happy overall as the US economy rolls though its 11th consecutive year of expansion. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Monday found 56 percent of respondents approving of the way Trump is handling the economy. And a late December CNN poll found 76 percent rated economic conditions as very or somewhat good, the highest share to say the economy is good since 80 percent in February 2001.

It is really possible, then, that the late 1970s economy under President Carter — who lost the 1980s election in a landslide to Ronald Reagan — is better than the current one? Take a look at this graphic, which attempts to make that very point by showing real GDP in the third year of the first terms of Carter, Bill Clinton, and Trump.

Look, economic growth will be slower under Trump than Carter. But that’s not a particularly impressive showing for the 39th president. The economy was enjoying a massive demographic tailwind back then. As the San Francisco Fed noted in a 2018 report, labor force growth alone contributed 2.7 percentage points to GDP growth in the 1970s, “meaning that even if productivity growth had been zero, the economy would have expanded at 2.7%, slightly faster than the pace of our current expansion.”

Today’s potential labor force growth is more like a half percent. If the Carter years had today’s demographics — afll else equal — it might have hardly grown at all. Moreover, that zippy 1970s growth came amid high inflation — eventually squeezed out by a nasty early 1980s recession — and high unemployment. The Misery Index averaged 16 under Carter, 6 under Trump. Consumer confidence was collapsing during the Carter years. That’s a big reason why he got walloped by The Gipper. The 1970s was a period when inflation got out of hand and productivity growth downshifted. While we can debate the historical strength of today’s economy, no one should seriously suggest the late-1970s merit consideration as the best ever.

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This article by James Pethokoukis first appeared in January 2020 on the AEI Ideas blog.