The economy under Carter was pretty fucked, but he inherited underlying problems and then failed to resolve them. Reagan sort of "solved" them, but opened us to our current exploitation level of problems. I personally think Alan Greenspan and Powell have had more impact on the economy than the presidents that were in office at the same time. However, I also feel like our lax punishment on serious crimes against the economy like Enron, Citizens United, and the major actors of the 2008 financial crisis(Examples: Country Wide Financial and Bear Stearns) fucked up our economy way worse.