(B) Scenario – Next worst case
No blue wave November
War on healthcare continued
Trade war continued
Minimum wage not affected
Results:
Recession/depression
Current administration blames Fed, China, Europe (“currency manipulators”)
Not enough people believe it
A Democrat is elected president in 2020
Likelihood: somewhat likely
Yeah, sure: the economy's improvement since the election is due to Obama. As long as you don't let the facts get in the way of your opinion.
3
Let’s see where economy is in 2020 or 2024 to blame or credit trump
(A) Scenario - Best case
Blue wave November
War on healthcare stopped
Trade war stopped
Minimum wage raised by $1+ an hour
Results:
A recession/depression is averted
GDP grows by 4% per year and/or
Monthly job growth increases from under 200,000 to 250,000+
Current administration takes credit
Not enough people believe it
A Democrat is elected president in 2020
Likelihood: least likely
I just wish when people get asked about the "economy" the question would be more clear about whose economy. We have at least two economies. The Republican corporate and share holder economy is going great, while my family is working harder and harder just to stay in place. We live in constant anxiety without any safety net. We are one accident or serious illness away from disaster. While we're told the economy is booming we are also told we can't afford universal health care, or universities, or a living wage, or paid leave or public infrastructure. This is not right. Which economy? Ask wealthy people and they'll say great, of course. Ask my son, an electrician with 2 children, and he'll be too tired and too worried to answer.
5
Mr. Trump wants to take credit for the economy ok. seems every President takes credit when things go positve. I'm not going to argue that the economy started going good after Obama. Mr. Trump need to accept he gets to bash in the sun when things are good and he becomes the Goat when things are not good.
My Question is: Do Americans feel better off Since Trump became President? Thats the Question that Voters need to answer at the Pols.
Obama’s first year in office, annual economic growth was horrible, a deep minus number, but we’ll give him that because he inherited the recession.
His second year in office, 2010, the annual economic growth rate was 1.6 %.
In his last year in office, 2016, the annual economic growth rate was 1.6%.
At no point in his 8 years in office did his annual economic growth rate get to 3%. He is the only president in US history to have had an administration with an annual growth rate that never got to 3% in any year.
The annual growth rate for his entire 8 years is 1.48%. And that is while doubling our national debt from 10 trillion to 20 trillion dollars.
That is not economic recovery. That is shameful. And saying it is a recovery is shameful.
3
The economy has, since the 1980s, left a great many Americans in the lurch. We weren't able to save for the future because our jobs didn't pay enough to save and pay the bills at the same time. In the 1980s the larger years of the baby boom generation came of age. We were not inundated with job offers. Just like the generations coming after us, we couldn't move out of the parental home, start families, buy houses, or take on more debt. We were the first generation to see that the American Dream was not going to happen for us.
Thanks to Reagan, the GOP, quite a few Democrats, and the American inclination to believe in the myth of rugged individualism, we have a lousy social safety net. We let people become impoverished when they want to work, when they have the skills, when they are capable of learning. We let people remain poor even when they work full time. We let people go without medical care they need to the point where they die.
My parents were able to save money and retire. My parents were able to get medical care when they needed it. Those of us born after 1954 or so will be unable to retire, to count on jobs that will cover our expenses and needs, and will probably live through a few periods of extended unemployment before we are considered un-hireable at the age of about 55 or so.
The economy is failing any American who was not born into wealth or able to acquire wealth. The only people for whom the economy is working are the ultra rich.
21
The effect of Trump's bombastic rhetoric is a compelling reason for a renewed emphasis in America's schools on civics education. We need the American electorate to be aware reality.
1
Ridiculous to say Obama had ANYTHING to do with economic growth. Democrats have zero understanding of economics. Obama's policies definitely DID NOT create an environment of economic growth. How could increased regulation actually grow an economy? Its simple. A 5 year old could understand it. Regulations and taxes slow economic growth.
4
@Patrick McCord
“…zero understanding of economics…”
“…taxes slow economic growth…”
How about “the balanced budget multiplier”?
How about “externalities”?
What about “the twin deficits”?
Trade “deals” vs. “comparative advantage”?
Can a 5-year old understand all this?
If anything good happened in the economy in Trump's first day he would take total credit that he was 100% responsible.
If we have an economic crisis three years into a theoretical second term he would immediately blame it on Obama. This character puts the Ring Lardner's short story hero Alibi Ike to shame.
Even if upward economic/employment trends began under Obama, it’s not Trump’s piggybacking off of those trends that irks me. What irks me are the 2 things that come along with with his claims of economic genius.
First, foremost, and forever with Trump are the lies. I don’t mean lying in the sense that he claims total credit for a trend that pre-dates his presidency. I mean the lies he told about there being 26%-40% “real” unemployment during the Obama years. I still remember those assertions from his campaign and thinking for the hundredth time, “Trump really does think his supporters fools!” Who in their right mind would believe that the Obama years had a higher rate of unemployment than what was seen during the Great Depression? Speaking of “depression,” it was disheartening to see how many people actually believed him. The insult of that lie was compounded when the president inexplicably said, after gaining office, that the data he called “a hoax” before was “very real” now.
Second, is the way Trump demands credit for any good news, but disclaims and responsibility for bad news. This is not just with economics, but in any given situation. I’ve had pets that take more responsibility for their own decisions than the President of the United States. And when a powerful person refuses to BE responsible, it naturally makes people want to HOLD that leader responsible. His demands for credit just make it worse.
1
A NY Times OpEd gave great advice for the Democrats: "Don't argue with sunshine. Don’t acknowledge good news through gritted teeth. Don't predict imminent disaster and stop obsessing about 2016 loss."
2
@Mark, I guess you don't know the parable of the scorpion and the frog. It's their nature!
2
Here are some facts (for Larry Sabato):
U.S. GDP Growth Rate in 1992: 3.6% (remember all those NYTimes stories about Clinton benefiting from the strong economy he inherited from Bush senior?)
U.S. GDP Growth Rate in 2016: 1.5%
U.S. GDP Growth Rate in 2017: 2.3%
1
The hypocrisy from the Republicans on deficit spending is deafening. For eight long years they beat that drum after the economic crash yet within one year under Trump borrowed against the treasury to give tax cuts to the richest.
It’s easy to look at history to see the Republicans are not and never have been the party of fiscal responsibility.
And yet public perception continues this dangerous misperception.
The Dems have no one but themselves to blame. They never had a good clear economic message under OBama and they don’t now.
The Obama legacy, is Trump. He saved every banker from the clinker while foreclosing on 5 million homes! Geithner, a hero for saving the economy, (for the well chosen). Even if you weren't foreclosed on, you feared getting foreclosed. Trump, talked down about the bankers, candy to the voters ears, and Hillary was getting huge personal payoffs, (for speeches). Those two well publicized factors alone won for Trump, despite his absurd character traits.
2
The average person is both economically and financially illiterate. A year and half is not a long term trend. Ignore who is in the white house and analyze the data. What is actually shows as either a moving average or slope of the plotted data is barely different since 2009. Trump is claiming credit and it is fake news. Get back to us in two more years.
3
The "upturn" wasn't just "begun" under Obama. The economic growth Trump inherited was long and durable.
Consider jobs as the most important example. Every way you make the comparison, Obama comes out way ahead.
Obama averaged 207,000 jobs created each and every month over his final 5 years in office. Yes he did!
Trump has averaged 191,000 per month so far. For a very detailed comparison, see this:
http://amorpha.blogspot.com/2018/06/trump-jobs-obama-jobs.html
Trump wants credit for the 20-year low in the unemployment rate, but the rate has declined at a constant clip since its peak in 2009, and if anything the rate of decline has flattened slightly under Trump:
https://tinyurl.com/y96c78zf
Unfortunately, propaganda wins over informed understanding with a large swath of the electorate, so appropriating Obama's economic accomplishment is a natural move for Trump.
Many voters will respond by saying: about time! See what happens when you elect (as Romney claimed for himself) somebody who "knows how the economy works"?
2
If anyone is going to claim "the win" for the economy we should use baseball rules for pitchers:
"The winning pitcher is defined as the pitcher who last pitched prior to the half-inning when the winning team took the lead for the last time. a. Exception 1, the starting pitcher must pitch at least 5 innings to be eligible for a win."
Considering the economy was in free fall when Obama took office, he is definitely the pitcher who "took the lead" in turning the economy around to prosperity. And he kept throwing strikes for the rest of his two terms.
Donald Trump is merely the relief pitcher who came into the game during the ninth inning of a game that was already won by the starter, Obama.
Sure, Trump has gotten another three outs, but he also has committed a lot of unforced errors.
68
@medianone Love the analogy. But how would you apply it to the pitcher who entered the game down 10-0 as Obama did? If all he did was prevent the other team from scoring while his team scored runs, that would be good. But if he also hit a few home runs to contribute to that offense, wow, now that would be something even if it doesn't show up in his ERA. If he were playing in the National League, Trump would be the easy out.
4
The Democrats need to figure out how to talk about the economy. They haven’t.
By all measures, Obama turned around an economy that was categorized as The Great Recession. The job losses were stemmed. Detroit was turned around. The financial sector was steadied (for all the populism, it was the only available course of action to stop the economy from free fall). We had month after month of job growth and across the board strong economic fundamentals.
What did the Republicans do? They framed the conversation into one that Democrats couldn’t win: that ALL Americans weren’t feeling the benefit of the economy and pointed to wage growth being stagnant. They do this all the time: shift the onus to 100%, an all or nothing debate (like guns won’t eliminate deaths... why focus on “eliminate”? Isn’t reduction good enough?)
“All” Americans. As if the GOP ever cared for all Americans... They only focus on the Top 10%, while offering trickle down crumbs to the rest.
How much better is the economy under Trump? The inflation adjusted wage growth is negative. So, their argument against Obama’s economy doesn’t hold for them.
Corporate profits are higher as are take-homes for the rich. What about the rest of America? Trump has made it difficult for people with his war on healthcare. People are paying more and saving less and that’s all on Trump doing his best to dismantle Obamacare.
Trump has made things worse for ordinary Americans. Learn to talk intelligently about that, Democrats.
33
Hello, Patrician! Well done, my friend. You are so right that Democrats have an opening, if they only realize it. There is a segment who would vote Democratic if candidates speak the right language, meaning plain economic talk. So-called 'identity politics' won't resonate, but policies centered on fair pay, worker protections, a fair tax system, and the danger of Trump's half baked tariff wars will ring true. They should also be relentless about Trump's plan to circumvent Congress and give the wealthy yet another tax break they don't need, adding to the deficit in the process.
As always, I greatly appreciate your kind words, however often they appear. ;)
9
Contrary to his assertions, Mr. Trump is not a pro-business president. Sure, the business community liked the tax cuts and deregulation. Those are policies that any Republican administration would have pushed. Infrastructure would be indirectly pro-business, but so far nothing has been done on that front.
So what's left? Trade wars and protectionist tariffs. Curbing legal immigration. Pay-to-play scams that help US Steel and Nucor, but hurt the much larger domestic manufacturing sector that uses steel as an input. The list goes on and on.
The US Chamber of Commerce strongly opposes Mr. Trump on his trade wars and immigration policies. So do the Koch brothers, to the point where they announced they will consider endorsing Democratic candidates in some races.
The remainder of the Trump agenda is anti-business. And the chickens will soon come home to roost.
19
The only thing that has changed in our economy is the right's rhetoric. We went from "carnage" to "morning in America" simply because Trump put his hand on a bible. We went from "don't believe the numbers, unemployment is 42%" to" aren't these unemployment numbers to good to believe". FOX news introduced an economic report by saying "let's see how much money Trump put in your 401K this week, when I know they never gave Obama credit for tripling the stock market. And finally, The deficit was never left out of any discussion of long term economic strength, until the Republicans came to power and blew a hole in the same deficit with their tax code. I hope all goes well in our economy, but if it doesn't, I wonder who the right will blame, rhetorically speaking.
107
This back and forth about the economy and jobs over some 18 month period between President Obama and Trump to me is not a reasonable comparison or the right argument. One is riding the economic expansion created by the previous Administration.
I only have to ask myself this, where would we be today if Trump had been elected in 2008 instead of President Obama? The answer to me is obvious. “Great Depression Two”. Obama put his ego aside, hired the best of the best, and took a lot of heat for that $700 billion stimulus package, and automotive industry bailout, with the Republicans fighting him all the way.
No contest, President Obama can rightfully take credit for where we are today, he just doesn’t brag about it.
310
@cherrylog754/ Same result only more dramatic. Obama's economy ran out of steam in 2014. It's also important to know that the 2008 crash happened after it became apparent an unknown and very liberal globalist was about to become President of the most powerful economy in the world. I for one, and likely not the only one, moved my assets fully to cash in June of 2008, missing the Wall Street Carnage by mere weeks. Likewise much of Trumps meteoric equities rise was base on hype, as much as the 2008 crash was based on fear. The reaction back to 24,000 to 25,000 on the Dow is reflection of reality, and now we'll see a more sensible rise to 30,000 over the next 2-3 years based on earnings, and consumer confidence.
3
Sparky, that crash came in 2007, and if Obama's economy "ran out of steam," after 2014, why'd he still have better job creation numbers and two better quarters of GDP than Trump?
Oh, well, just another Time Travel Trick from the Right. I mean, I literally had a conversation with a Trumpist a couple weeks back in which the guy claimed that Obama's cut Forest Service support (it was Bush, after 2004), so it was a good thing Trump'd fixed that back in 2016.
4
If Trump was elected in 2008 he would have gotten the tax cut and stimulus package Obama wanted but the Republicans refused to give him. They didn't
an African American to succeed at anything. @cherrylog754
1
Who gets credit for the current economy (on track for creating 1,000,000 fewer jobs than the previous administration) matters, if at all, only for the midterms.
Who gets blame for the coming debacle (recession/depression) matters a lot for the presidential elections.
2
I don't see much in these comments assigning blame to the great PR leviathan the Republicans have created. Fox News is part of it, but it's much bigger than that.
Trump seems to intuitively sense how to exploit that PR machine. We know he goes to Fox for a lot of the information he gets and the relationship is symbiotic. His advisers, mostly, are kindred spirits. He punishes anyone who tries to challenge him.
The very rich have contributed to the machine. Some of them may not like Trump, but they like what he's doing when it contributes to their bottom lines. Looking only at the role a president plays obscures the other factors that shape our economy. It's not just the result of individual decisions when the wealthy have an out-sized role in manipulating opinions.
2
The tax cut and increased federal spending have given the economy a boost.Trump gets credit for the tax cut which should make our companies more competitive in the global arena.If he succeeds in getting better trade deals then he will get credit as well. It seems like he is more focused on increasing the growth of the economy than Obama but then again Trump is a businessman and understands the power of money.
7
@Sean Mulligan
A very accurate view. Factual, not emotional.
2
@Sean Mulligan
“…the tax cut which should make our companies more competitive in the global arena…”
Exactly how would it do that?
“…getting better trade deals…”
How do you know a trade deal is better? There are several parties involved. Better for whom? Better for consumers?
1
It's a pretty sad state of affairs when Obama's described shortcomings are a result of his emotional maturity that dissuaded him from boasting about his role in remedying the worst economic crisis since the great depression. He's above shameless self promotion. Whether Trump's policies deserve credit for building on Obama's success or are merely short term gains from the immediate gratification of tax cuts that could result in an overheated economy and rising inflation only time will tell. But if the economy reenters a crisis mode who would you rather have; the steady stewardship of Obama or the flamboyant self promotion of Trump.
7
Eleven years ago in 2007 the economy fell flat on its face.
The Great Recession.
The banking industry crashed.
The housing industry crashed.
Massive scale bankrupties.
Massive scale home foreclosures.
Companies closed their doors and jobs evaporated within months.
Who caused it? Deregulation of banks under the Republican Party.
Who brought our country back into solvency and gave our country the gift of healthcare for all? Barack Obama's administration and the Democratic Party.
The Donald Trump administration has taken credit for another administration's hard work and is creating the same reckless environment for another worse crash.
11
@sandcanyongal What a unique perspective you have on the root cause of the Great Recession, how the country moved forward and your economic predictions for the future.
what Trump knows best, and there's not a whole lot he knows best, is self-promotion. and to his good fortune, his followers ain't too smart to see through it. well, good for him.
5
In the days leading up to the election economic graphs were flat or declining. Hillary was sure to win even talking tax increases.. there was no enthusiasm about the economy or much else.
Post election, in fly over morning coffee shops the sudden optimism was palpable.
To not acknowledge the Trump bump strains credibility.
8
Trump is not gallant, honest or man enough to credit President Obama for our economic recovery.
10
New York City improved immensely during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. But if you mention that to certain people they are reluctant to give credit to Giuliani and Bloomberg claiming that the City's turnaround occurred during the Dinkens Administration, which it clearly did not.
Now the same nonsense is afflicting Trump, a reluctance to give credit where credit is due.
10
Everything good is due to Obama and everything bad is solely Trump's responsibility. I like a simple theology so I am glad to be a proud NYT subscriber.
9
He forgot to add that before his reign, the sun did not shine, nor the rain fall. And it is low character people in the west he has taken the rain away from to punish them for their sinfulness and heresy. And rained fire upon. Like the bible says. Yea verily it is so.
2
'Unusually for a postwar president, Mr. Obama’s approval ratings did not improve along with rising consumer sentiment.'
not surprising when you remember that in the US, it's a crime to be black ...
13
@Frank Too bad you fail to remember that Obama won two elections and could have won a third easily. Kind of hurts your thesis.
9
We're seeing a remarkable trend among the "pro-Trump" commentators on sites like this one: sentences and phrases copied word-for word from other websites, all popping up in neat little rows and batches. Almost makes you suspect there's a bit of a coordinated effort involved. The lack of original ideas and thoughts, replaced instead with parroting and copy-pasted slogans with no context and no connection to the points made in the actual article, is almost enough to suggest that the commentators don't understand English very well to begin with. I have to ask: where are the actual AMERICANS who support Trump? Are there any left in this country? Have they all decided to boycott papers like the New York Times? I want to hear an actual right-wing American's voice and opinion for a change. Instead we have a wall of non-posts by "users" who are obviously the same person or propaganda team acting on someone else's orders.
14
The market is getting more confident because the Trump administration. Especially when in comes to deregulation. President Trump is trying to create an environment which facilitates doing business and creating opportunity here in America. So his presidency is tied to economic performance . His style is aggressive and extremely competitive. So don't expect that he will recognize President Barack Obama economic achievements . It's all about winning no matter what. The only question is: how sustainable those economic strategies are for long run?
8
@Fernandol. Exactly what has been deregulated and how has that increased commerce?
3
@JP You will find a complete list of deregulations from Medicare to Avocados here: Competitive Enterprise Institute: "Regulatory Reform: Completed Actions Fiscal Year 2017
Remember that it was Obama who promised "affordable health care" and said that "if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance" Instead, Americans were subjected to mandated coverage that was ridiculously expensive in addition to containing ridiculously high deductible, the plans were in effect catastrophic coverage only and were a boondoggle that enriched the private insurance carriers.
Then there was Syria and Libya.
The Democratic Party will need several more years to live all that down.
11
@Navigator Wait to see what your insurance is going to be under trump. Right before he sells us out to Russia. And his family and a lot of campaign are in prison. I’ll take Obama any day.
8
@Navigator: Your navigation skills may need honing.
4
It looks like Navigator cannot navigate history:
1. Mandated health insurance was a Republican idea.
2. "the plans....enriched the private insurance carriers." Hey Navigator, who gets rich now? The insurance companies. That's unless you really want single payer such as Medicare for all. What's the Republican plan? What's your plan?
3. Libya. Yeah, we should have kept that friend of the US, Khadafy, in power. What a great guy he was.
4. The only thing you stated here that was correct was Obama's "red line" after Assad's use of chemical weapons. Obama dropped the ball big time there.
You were 1 for 4. Not terrible in Major League Baseball, but as a historian, you'd be out of a job.
9
Well, com'on, what d'you expect? If it wasn't for Trump the sun wouldn't shine.
Oh, that's right, it didn't, it rained.
But at least the crowd was bigger!
Oh, that's right, it wasn't.
And on and on and on...
4,000 lies later and it's still a surprise he's taking credit for everything moderately good and blaming all that's bad on everyone else?
Yup, we the people really are that dumb. Or is it perhaps the media who are just making us feel dumb.
Call it what it is!
16
I do not recall the American economy under Obama being all that great. I'm happy to read that at last the Obama economy really picked up after he was no longer President.
And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
12
@Navigator clearly you didn’t read the article.
4
@Navigator. If you do not see the improvement in every leading economic indicator from 2008 to 2016 the only plausible explanations are blindness or willful ignorance.
1
Thank you, Mr Trump. The Chinese have been stealing us blind. Even our friends the Europeans and the Japanese were glad to get our low tariffs while we paid the bills (and sometimes the lives) for their military protection.
11
The actual data which shows GDP growth in 2017 was not any better than the Obama years average. Last quarter GDP growth of 4.1% was due to corporate tax cuts, however the deficit also grew 22% from last year and is headed to $1 trillion. Inflation is also on the rise to 2.9% which means there has been no increase in real wages since Trump took office. The unemployment rate has continued the downward trend, however the participation rate of 62.8% has not changed under Trump.
The real question is the long term impact of Trump's policies. Economist will tell you high deficits and tariffs are bad for the economy leading to higher inflation and higher interest rates. 6 time bankrupt Trump looks like he will do for the USA what he did for many of his companies. However, I don't think Russia can afford to bail out the USA.
16
During the campaign Trump routinely bellowed that the real unemployment number was as much as 43%. Strange you don't hear him mentioning the real number anymore. Or was trump's 'real number' just another lie?
25
Trump sycophants can argue till they are blue in the face about Trump's great economic performance. It is all growth in income at the corporate level and among the 1%. Yes, it will show well in the aggregate statistics. Money is money. But the growth is massively lopsided. The 99% has seen no wage growth, and is actually losing to inflation. Trump's claims are lies, just like everything else coming out of his mouth. The people know this. Economic growth is an absolute loser for the mid-terms.
18
Granted that "facts are silly things":
The DJIA tripled while Obama was president. Granted, the base was low, but when America was on sale, the opportunities were bottomless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_OIyQmw9PA
And Obama was somehow anti-business?
9
For ten years the US economy has been a golden goose, steadily producing jobs and profits. Now, I fear, the poor goose is being choked to death by an inane tariff war on multiple fronts, rapidly growing deficits, mounting debt and an inflation that is finally taking hold.
17
Cohen and Casselman, after months of falsely claiming that the economy was not doing well, have had to change tactics. Apparently, everyone was laughing at their ridiculous conclusions. So now, in the spirit of 1984 by George Orwell, they are trying to rewrite history.
They now claim that the economy is in good shape, but that Obama deserves all the credit. The economy grew an average of 2.2% in Obama’s last 7 years (a postwar low for a recovery), grew only 1.8% in his final year, and never experienced more than 2 consecutive quarters of more than 2% growth. Since Trump became president, there has only been one quarter of sub par growth (1Q17, which he shared with Obama), the last year has had 2.8% growth, and he has had 5 consecutive quarters of growth between 2 and 4%. Yeah, real continuity.
And unemployment has hit record lows for blacks and Hispanics. Did it ever do that under Obama. Unemployment for those with less than a HS diploma hit an almost 50 year low. Didn’t happen under the anointed one. And labor participation for those 25-54 has gone up, not down.
19
Nice try, really. Perhaps the next time, perhaps fewer chantings from Hannity,mperhpas more, well, you know, facts.
Or possibly you do not.
9
@luxembourg Obviously you are getting your information from FOX news. I looked at the actual data and you will see that for the year GDP in 2017 under Trump was less than the average under Obama. Last quarter had 4.1% GDP growth due to corporate tax cuts, but are you aware that the deficit is up 22% over last year heading towards 1 Trillion dollars?
The long term trends are what is important. Also the data shows employment participation rate hardly unchanged since Obama 62.8% a stat FOX news no longer talks about. Yes the unemployment rate has come down, continuing the long term trend under Obama, but real wages are stagnant as inflation is going up. High deficits and protectionism will lead to inflation and higher interest rates.
17
@Luxembourg I'm sorry but can you tell us what trump has done in the 18 months he has been in office that has made all of this happen? What and when did he do anything to make unemployment for minorities decrease so much? It seems to me that this was happening when Obama was president and trump is just taking credit for the policies and decisions made by Obama.
8
If you believe that a president's administration has a significant effect on the economy, you should be a Democrat.
1. GDP growth (going back to the beginning of official data in 1930) has been 142% better under Democratic administrations. That's like a basketball game with a final score of 121-50, a huge blowout.
2. Monthly job creation (since the beginning of data in 1939) has been 90% better under Democratic administrations, another blowout.
3. We've had nine transitions in party power at the presidential level since the 1930s (through Obama), Democrats replacing Republicans and vice versa. Each and every time, the rate of job creation went up when Democratic presidents followed Republicans and down when Republican administrations followed Democrats. The odds of that happening by chance are more than 500 to 1.
4. Stock market performance and income growth have also been far superior under Democratic administrations.
14
@Jon
Of course, these periodic denials of reality that progressive blog-readers come here with are never once able to include any data or links, largely because of the polemic nature of the supposed ''data.''
Republicans PLUS John F. Kennedy create jobs - why? Because Republicans plus John F. Kennedy are willing to cut income taxes enough to convince eal-world people to risk their savings in building up jobs for workers.
Reagan & Bush raised middle class incomes over 12%.
https://www.heritage.org/taxes/report/the-real-reagan-economic-record-re...
https://www.heritage.org/trade/commentary/obama-soaks-the-rich-drowns-th...
1
Seems the "free-speech" backstage crew didn't like it the first time--how about this time:
Wrong. It began with Hamilton with bumps along the way and will continue, some with a better sense of it than others. What matters, growth in GDP and the numbers of citizens who enjoy that growth.
But about the only thing that can be said about the pre-Trump years is that Obama, in sum, was a drag creator in politics and economy, especially the last four. His first four were all Bernanke.
3
Trump can tout anything he wants, his followers, who worship him as a demigod and are practically illiterate and not very intelligent, will believe him as they believe what their Pastor tells them in church. For the first time in its history, this country is being run by illiterates elected by illiterates. A phenomenon of this magnitude has never happened outside the Third World.
24
@Richard Monckton You apparently only hang out with like-minded and like-sounding parrots who have never been exposed to a person with an opposing point of view. This is as bad as the Christians in Medieval Europe who only were exposed to what the Popes, Bishops and Priests wanted them to hear. You will be shocked to find out that many of Trump's supporters have PhDs and know only too well about the opposing view that you espouse from your CNN "bible" since they went to graduate schools where "leftist priests" (professors) preach the same sermon that you preach. If you want to get out of your faith-based "progressive" perspective and look at real scientific data, look at the GDP data that iRail reviews below. Of course, progressives tend to be data illiterates (not all but many) and only know about feelings as opposed to real data.
7
@Richard Monckton P.S. "Third World" is a demeaning, colonial, politically incorrect term that you never would use had you gone to any graduate school where your faith-based progressive views are taught as bible. Perhaps, you need to become more literate and educated if you are to espouse that world view.
4
Wonder now why Trump is known as the Grifter?
A fraud years ago in NY & Jersey, a fraud now in DC.
His time is about to come undone...
18
This seams to be a pattern of Republican administrations running the economy into the ground and Democratic administration s (Clinton & Obama) picking up the pieces. The “spend and don’t tax” approach doesn’t work.
15
I don't gotta love him - and I don't. The National Nightmare is running our nation off a cliff.
19
Going along with the reality, based on many things Trump has done, that he does not understand ANYTHING about economics, it is completely evident that he does not understand economic cycles at all. It's not possible to turn a totally depressed economy around in less than 2 years. As Obama did, one needs to set in motion economic policies that take time to heal what was, at the time, a very damaged economy (created, by the way, by republican named George W. Bush who barely could add).
Obama did what was needed to be done to haul the economy from near depression levels. It has taken 8 years for those measures to set things right. At a certain point, whether going up or down, from a macro economic view, the economy sustains a certain trajectory. In this case, up. Once an economy turns up (or down) it creates its own momentum, up or down. In this case, up. So Trump thinks he's done something to energize the economy. Let's have a look in a few years when his tariffs and other over-spending measures have sent the economy into a tail spin. In which case, since he'll be voted out of office before this happens, he can start blaming the democrats for the damage he did.
18
Once people began feeling the effects of the tariff, I think there will be a downturn in the economy. My relatives can no longer afford to build a small house. In the past three months, the price of the preformed walls has increased 30 percent and the contractors bid went up by over 60 percent to cover higher costs of materials.
So much for winning!
15
It makes me very bitter that a Democratic President fixed the huge mess left to us by the “Great Recession” left to us my a Republican President, and another Republican who hasn’t got a clue about anything will leave with $20 Trillion in Federal debt for another likely Democratic President to fix.
The Republicans and their eco machine will then, on cue, go back to pretending that they care about all the profligate spending and demand that Democrats pay for the debts they had incurred by exterminating all Great Society programs that actually made us into a great country. And instead they will destroy a great country.
19
@ Raul Campos. You didn’t answer my premise and fact of my statement: Republicans will have run more than $20 TRLLION if deficit spending this time around. And next time Democrats get the reigns, Republicans will pretend they didn’t have anything to do with the deficit and that it is somehow not their fault and we need to continue cutting taxes and spending and pass the debt to future generations. And, dismantle the the great society.
Please stop drinking the propaganda being served to you.
7
He's running out of things to take credit for. All the things he previously claimed have gone down in flames or at least a slow motion exit without a parachute.
8
You can pull out graphs and charts and polls as long as you wish, they will not change the facts. Just like you did during the past presidential election. Remember that? Remember how this very paper displayed poll after poll, chart after chart, graph after graph, analysis after insightful analysis. And remember how every one of those charts and graphs and poll and articles proudly proclaimed a landslide for Hillary. And since then, it has been only wall to wall Trump bashing, wall to wall hate Trump in every corner and every section of this paper. You carry no weight anymore.
9
@Len. YOU are misremembering and projecting. Polls and predictions gave Trump a 30% chance of winning. 90+ percent of the polls gave those odds. The predicted margin was in the single digits. None of those indicate the landslide you claim was expected.
4
@Len This ignores the fact that he only won due to electoral votes.
1
Being proud and pleased with what he has inherited is par for the Trump course. He is the prototypical ‘born on third base and thinks he hit a triple’ person. He denigrates those who got there from starting in the batters box, like Obama, and sneers at and loathes those who start in the on-deck circle, the dugout, or the janitors chair in the locker room. He thinks if them locker room people got to third, it is a conspiracy.
10
Congratulations to the Trump Administration for extending the Obama recovery for an additional 18 months. So far the egregious tax cuts for multi-millionaires and counterproductive tariffs against both friends and foes have not yet destroyed the 75 straight months of economic growth under President Obama
16
Tax gut legislation was low hanging fruit and a lower priority for 44.5. He was unsuccessful with his first few legislative campaigns.
Health reform was passed as 44’s first choice priority.
Clinton economy result great, W economy result 2nd worst ever, Obama reversed W, and the Obama upward slope is durable enough for dt, but it just started to W again-right on schedule. Facts have consequences.
7
@Hank
While you avoided reading the news around the 9/11/2001 era, the Bush tax cut - as smll as it was - paid for itself and RAISED middle class incomes by about as much as Reagan's, over twelve percent.
Clinton was helped by Newt Gingrich, whom, of course, you have been directed to hate. Without Newt, Climton may have doubled the national debt he inherited.
Obama and the Pelosi Congress starting in 2007 lowered middle class family incomes by $5,000.
2
And yet oddly, you document nothing. Golly, why might that be?
5
@Robert
Whether you responded to he or I, google can get you anywhere.
For numbers on Republican presidents' economic results, the fastest FAIR place I've found is Heritage.org which pays people to write verifiable articles and then pays others to review them.
1
Wonder how quick he will blame others when the economy slows? It will happen, just a question of when.
10
While Obama and Tom Perez, his Labor Secretary and now DNC Head, were constantly telling us how great the economy was - the GDP data tell the real story (see post by iRail below). The Obama/Perez economy had picked up in 2014/early 2015, but then it slid significantly from Q3 2015 onward. The GDP rate was only averaging 1.5% during these later Obama years, whereas Trump's economy has almost doubled that rate since he took office. Something changed since Trump entered. Whereas Perez and Obama were touting how great the new jobs were (jobs at Walmart mostly), Trump has brought back good jobs to the US with his America First platform.
10
It's all about the rivalry between the honest and the larcenous.
If you desire, observe overlays of the histories of the nation's economic health, political party occupancy, and the price of Fossil Fuels.
You will find a direct relationship among these three. Under Democrats, restraints on the larcenous behavior of Capitalism are restrained significantly more than when Republicans hold power unleashing the surge of greed that makes people wealthy and grows the economy, but there is a catch!
The Fossil fuels prices decline under Democrats and escalate under Republicans. We all know the Fuels industry supports Republicans and the Environmentalists support Democrats.
Observe the movement of Fuels prices through the decades. Most recently, the price of crude oil hovered as low as 10 dollars under Democrats and a prosperous economy in the nineties. Under Bush and his oil government, the price escalated from 2003 until July 2008 when it peaked at 147 dollars and crippled the economy. Following the onset of recession in late 2008, oil prices plummeted amid millions of lost jobs and homes. Oil prices collapsed and hovered at 27 dollars during the Trump Campaign and now hovers around 70 dollars.
Once again, consider the unleashing of economic greed under Republicans and the effective influence of Democrats on greed that allows fuels, the foundation of the economy, including the world's, to stay low in price allowing prosperity.
It's really about which party is in power.
2
@Shakinspear
The Congressional Republicans unabashedly "Support" the fossil fuels industry once again as prices escalate under their leadership, and who additionally repealed the federal prohibition on exporting Crude Oil and also are lobbying to export massive shipments of Liquefied Natural Gas. Between the Fuels industry manipulating production to raise prices, and the Republicans efforts to deny Americans the lower costs of energy and products as the fuels are exported to increase demand our economy will start into recession, with the additional weights of the Consumers taxing Tariffs.
It all adds up to the greatest larcenous heist of wealth since 2008. Recession will appear soon.
4
Sugar high. noun. “Steep corporate tax cuts have raised longer-term worries about bloated deficits, and an anti-regulatory stance troubles watchdogs who warn that health and safety risks will increase. But in the short term, those actions have temporarily quickened the pace of growth, pumped money into the economy and buoyed business confidence.”
5
With our divided nation both sides each gives credit to their side for any positives and of course blame the other side for any failures. its a shame but its our slimy politics. Slimy politics where all politicians are subservient to the campaign donors.
4
The graph, "Economic Opinions Depend Largely on Party", tells a much different story than the headline and much of the article. At no time during the "recovery", did more than 38% of Republicans or Democrats rate the economy as excellent or good.
Ignoring the partisan Republican exaggeration of the economy since 2017, the Democrats think the economy has gotten a bit worse.
The elite and their media keep telling us how great the economy is but, judging from that poll, not many are believing them.
2
Obama more often had sub 2% GDP growth including four negative quarters. Every Trump quarter so far produced over 2% GDP growth.
Reported by Commerce Dept BEA
Based on 2012 Chained Dollars
G. W. Bush Quarterly Performance 2009Q1
2009Q1 -4.4%
Obama Quarterly Performance 2009Q2 - 2017Q1
2009Q2 -0.6%
2009Q3 1.5%
2009Q4 4.5%
2010Q1 1.5%
2010Q2 3.7%
2010Q3 3.0%
2010Q4 2.0%
2011Q1 -1.0%
2011Q2 2.9%
2011Q3 -0.1%
2011Q4 4.7%
2012Q1 3.2%
2012Q2 1.7%
2012Q3 0.5%
2012Q4 0.5%
2013Q1 3.6%
2013Q2 0.5%
2013Q3 3.2%
2013Q4 3.2%
2014Q1 -1.0%
2014Q2 5.1%
2014Q3 4.9%
2014Q4 1.9%
2015Q1 3.3%
2015Q2 3.3%
2015Q3 1.0%
2015Q4 0.4%
2016Q1 1.5%
2016Q2 2.3%
2016Q3 1.9%
2016Q4 1.8%
2017Q1 1.8%
TrumpQuarterly Performance 2017Q2 - 2018Q2
2017Q2 3.0%
2017Q3 2.8%
2017Q4 2.3%
2018Q1 2.2%
2018Q2 4.1%
7
@iRail
Look at the state of the economy when each president took office and the headwinds one had to face. Obama, pending economic collapse. Trump, an economy riding a wave.
3
@iRail nice job showing Obama economic durability.
6
@Raul Campos: The recession officially ended in June 2009 but the effects lingered for years because of the severity of the downfall, which was no fault of Obama’s. Employment fell by 6.3 percent, more than twice the decline in the 1981 recession, three times the decline in the 2001 recession, and four times the decline in the 1990 recession.
2
The bubble has started to re-inflate. The weird wall street investment programs and associated money supply/debt increases will cause another mega-recession. It will just take a bit for these Trump’s poor economic policies to rip everything apart. It will likely make the last recession look like a walk in the sunshine.
The 30 trillion dollar debt is actually too close...it will likely hit in about 5 to 8 years.
Millennials...take notice---this will be your problem.
5
It is important to highlight the fact that the USA uses a different methodology compared to the other countries when it comes to measuring quarterly GDP growth.
While other countries uses the bare annualized rate (e.g. Q3 2018 compared to Q3 2017), the USA uses the quarterly rate (i.e. Qx compared to Q(x-1)) with the difference multiplied by four (seazonal adjustment). This leaves the USA accusing significantly higher quarterly GDP growths than other countries.
So, if you adopt the normal methodology, the USA under Trump has only grown 2.8%, below the appex of Obama. And Obama was bellow the appex of George W. Bush, who was bellow the appex of Bill Clinton -- the last POTUS who grew more than his predecessor.
I'm sorry, Americans: your country is still in the post-2008 depression, and there's no end in sight.
6
Obama’s socialist economy was running full steam at 2% growth when he left. His profligate spending was so un-American. He left us a hot mess which Trump had fixed in record time. Fake news is counting on Americans not remembering the sordid pathetic Obama economic legacy. It was 18 months ago! We remember quite well.
7
@Steve
Hey Steve: You seem to have forgotten that Pres Obama inherited a major recession from Bush, as well as a housing crisis. He turned around our economy, and put us back on track.
If you look at graphs of both job growth and GDP, the percentage increase curves under Trump are NO BETTER than under Pres Obama! And Trump didn't inherit the mess that Pres Obama did.
The fact that you toss in buzz-words like "socialist economy" and "profligate spending" demonstrate that you're basing your comment on rehashed Fox News lies, rather than actual data. Compare the projected deficit explosion under Trump's tax cut versus Pres Obama's; and then get back to us about which one is actually guilty of profligate spending.
Maybe if you actually read this article you'd realize how uninformed your comment is.....
6
@Steve - Is this a spoof? Hard to tell.
5
@Steve:
Trump's Trillion in added debt is "the hot mess".
Whatever "sordid and pathetic" memories you are having has nothing to do with Obama. Maybe you are thinking of the porn-payouts of Donald Trump.
3
Whoop de do. Every President boasts about accomplishments that they had no control over. Granted President Trump is definitely on the opposite end of the humble spectrum this is nothing new.
One thing he can claim having a hand in is presenting a positive business environment to the country. Optimism can be quite contagious.
3
Not only is the economy not any better under Trump than it was under Obama, it will get worse in the years ahead, thanks to Trump’s tax cuts for the rich, which will create trillion-dollar annual deficits starting next year.
9
@Stephen Brennwald:Nobody cares about deficits especially Democrats where Obama doubled the deficit to save the economy in 2009. Are we against successful companies and the rich people that run them? where do our jobs come from if not from them? from unsuccessful companies??. The idea with the tax cuts is to make us comparable with other economies like Canada whose tax rate is still 7% Less than ours. Now I wish with the tax cuts they would also end these regime change wars and give us better health care..
4
"Economic upturn"? Obama never did anything except drag this country down -- on all fronts at that! His legacy will go down as being the worst U.S. President in history!
11
@Rangerluna
Sure, why let economic data get in the way of a good argument?
9
@Rangerluna
The fact that your comment is based solely on a ad hominem attack and hyperbole, I think we can all simply ignore what you have to say, because it's meaningless.
5
@Rangerluna - We'd all be living under freeway overpasses had it not been for Obama's common sense. Remember the housing bubble of 2007/2008? Oh, of course not, D was a Republican
2
When next quarter GDP is 2% - like the quarter previous to the 4.1% estimate - will slobbering about a great economy continue? The economy continues to expand - that's all - a strong economy - NOT REALLY.
5
2
@APO And if next quarter comes in, once again, at 3 to 4% growth will you join the "slobbering"?
2
Trump is only better at tooting his own horn, taking credit for everything that turns out well, and denying he had anything to do with everything he botched.
He wouldn't recognize an economic strategy if one sat on his lap. He only knows how to sell, and what he sells best is himself.
8
Radical liberal democrats have really gotten desperate when they need to try and give Obama credit for Trump's accomplishments. It shows just how bad a president Obama was with no worthwhile accomplishments of his own.
10
So you’re impressed that Trump « created » fewer jobs in his first 18 months in office compared to Obama’s last 18 months? Not to mention that Trump’s tax cuts are devastating our budgets?
6
@Stephen Brennwald _ Stephen, don't feed the trolls, I just did until I realized my mistake.
@Don
Hey Don: If you look at any graph based on actual data, you'll see that the economy actually DID get better under Pres Obama, in terms of numberof jobs created and GDP growth.
But don't let pesky little details like data and facts get in the way of your baseless ad hominem attacks....
4
Trump has put us into bubble territory with unsustainable stimulation between spending (huge military spending increases and arms) and corporate tax break. Next big stimulus is infrastructure and his militarization of space. Trump runs his govt like he runs his business - on huge unsustainable levels of borrowing. And he thinks nothing of default ... get the preview this fall with his threats to shut down govt. He doesn't care about govt paying its bills.
And sadly, the terrible Republican fiscal mismanagement means that the Democrats have to become the party of austerity. No one likes austerity, and everyone wants to party under the stimulus budget. Thus Democrats also must promise free college, free medical care, free housing, guaranteed income.
Our political class has become more irresponsible than ever. Won't our currency also be under attack at some point? What happened to the business groups that wanted predictability in the economy? Those that wanted steadiness? This is a roller coaster, and it's making a lot of us ill.
6
Barack Obama didn't need to bad-mouth the economy he inherited in 2009. It was on the brink of collapse, and everyone knew it, Many, in fact, felt it.
But Americans are an impatient lot. When detractors said that it was just another recession and that the recovery was "painfully slow," voters punished Obama's party at the polls.
In 2017, Barack Obama passed with flying colors the test that Ronald Reagan articulated in 1980: "Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?"
Donald Trump, who took office on the crest of an economic wave, will certainly fail. And he'll do it in four.
14
@NA ?4, it will tip in 3 months from now. I wish not, but we bubbled already. I love a bubble, but I don't smear its goo all over. Fail is bad, please don't hope for it...reality is that we are gonna hit a statistical economic adjustment soon. And, Obama is not in office...that leaves the Rs.
2
@NA: That bad economy you are mentioning goes back to the Clinton years when Democrats played The Discrimination Card and used their ' community agitating ' mobs like ACORN , in bankers' front yards , to force banks to give loans to people who were unemployed or had bad credit records . Totally dysfunctional economic polices foisted on people over the Democrats' divisive Discrimination Campaign. The Democrats have been dividing this country for decades . Gone steroidal ever since they lost the 2016 election. Totally off the rails now... ( wife )
2
@richard. Banks got tired of making a mere 6% on their re holdings, so they invented a flawed way of pooling risk. No politician or community organizer told them how or why to do so.
And I just got Alaska and Hawaii for us - Trump
6
18 months in is a rookie.
Let's remind him that, like any competition, it only matters where you end up. It might be something we can do to try to keep him from completely blowing us all up.
9
Well at least this rookie is off to a good start. How is your IRA/401k doing?
@Matthew
5
@cp: How was your IRA/401k looking in January 2017 compared to where it was in January 2009?
8
@cp - wait for a couple of months.
It's true - Obama would have been much better at messaging his economic accomplishments if he'd lied through his teeth a couple dozen times a day and incessantly preened and glorified himself like a deranged peacock.
30
@gdurt “... you will save $2,500 yearly on healthcare...” - Obama
@gdurt Seriously. Or if Obama had Democratic members of Congress touting his successes rather than running away from him and blaming Obama for not doing enough to help them.
1
@, some people might have if Republicans cooperated rather than trying everything they could to destroy the plan. Funny how you all get caught up in the so called lies, two mind you, on the ACA but ignore trump telling at least five lies a day since he has been president.
I am so thankful for President Obama for pulling us out of our steepening downward spiral of 2008-2009. (My diaries of that period are full of in-the-moment dread as it seemed we were all about to go under.) His maturity and calm was not able to win over the nihilistic GOP -- who did everything they could to limit the Obama Administration's success -- but it was enough to stave off cataclysm, and to get the economy humming for a remarkably long sustain.
Early in that recovery, I co-invested in a warehouse/light manufacturing property in northern California. It has been doing great business ... until recently. Everything is now shaky and uncertain. A prospective machine-tool tenant is balking on their planned expansion, because they are witnessing shrinking markets and increasing materials costs.
Nervous uncertainty is reverberating through the entire region, affecting home sales, big purchases, investments, and planning.
14
President Obama did a remarkable job getting us out of the mess of 2008. We owe him our gratitude.
Obama was (is?) a much more elegant, quite, humble man than Trump, not usually tooting his own horn.
That's the major reason Trump has been able to ride the Obama economy as his own success, gloating and bragging as his tariffs threaten to drag us into a recession - or worse.
A 5 time bankrupt who cheated, stiffed or defrauded many of his associates, Trump likely only survived financially by being bailed out by Russian oligarchs once U.S. bankers were finished with him.
Trump doesn't know what he's doing. His stupidity, as evidenced by the tariffs and his insistence on promoting coal and steel while denying climate change and refusing to promote green industries, is going to take us down eventually.
27
How is your 401k doing?
@fast/furious
3
@cp I don't know about you, but mine took a loss in the last quarter for the first time in about 5 years.
You can thank Bill Clinton for the "mess Obama got us out of":
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-a...
Note paragraph seven.
@fast/furious
3
In others words you're saying Trump is a much better demagogue and that vast numbers of Americans are willing dupes. #thisismamerica
9
In the eight years between Obama's election and Trump's election the S&P 500 index grew at about ten percent annualized. Not bad.
Since Trump's election the S&P 500 index has grown at 17 percent annualized. That's 70 percent more return per year under Trump. The stock market votes with dollars, not words. Anyone saving for retirement has benefited much more under Trump.
The historically low unemployment numbers for blacks, Hispanics and women happened under Trump's seventeen months, not Obama's eight years. Even if you want to give Obama credit, it begs the question: why did it take him so long?
6
The answer to your question is simple. Obama is a Democrat. The GOP had the majority in Congress for most of Obama's eight years in office. They fought tooth and nail against everything Obama wanted to do. That's what "took him so long."
14
@cp
You are looking a year and a half and extrapolating. It doesn't work that way.
"Past performance is not a guarantee of future results."
You should compare the same time period for both men.
For the first 16 months.
S&P 500
Trump = +16.69%
Obama = +47.37%
And Trump's economy is starting to flounder.
12
@cp Please don't start with the minority jobs numbers. That's a dishonest take on the data. You're pretending that those improvements didn't start under Obama. It's ridiculous to compare Trump's 18 months to Obama's eight years when the economy was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs when Obama came in. Obama climbed from a trench. Trump began from the top of a hill.
8
Your own graph shows that Democrats’ views of the economy are fairly stable since 2016. It’s Republicans’ views that suddenly changed massively. Can we please drop the false balance?
9
Ethical behavior …
Republican ethical behavior. I must have missed something.
There seems to be a disparity of definition.
Or is it perhaps integrity?
F3
7
My sincere thanks, President Obama. We miss you more and more, each and every Day. Seriously.
40
Spending restraint and putting money back in the pockets of taxpayers are what Republicans are all about. That is what Trump has done, as he promised he would when he was running for the presidency. In Obama's case, he rammed through a $1 trillion stimulus plan paid for by American taxpayers which he guaranteed would produce million of "shovel ready jobs". Those jobs turned out to be guaranteed employment for his friends in Untied Federation of Teachers, civil service workers across the U.S.A., and for the non-competitive auto union workers of Detroit. All bona-fide constituents of the Democrat party. And then he foisted the biggest health care scam in history on American taxpayers, promising unwitting users that they could keep their own doctors and that that families would save $2500 a year when enrolled. What bunk. Look at the economy since Trump's tax cuts: 3%-4% economic growth every quarter. Record low unemployment. And better yet, record low minority unemployment. Don't try to tell me that Obama can take ANY credit for that. What he can take credit for is feathering the nest of his union buddies, and for instituting the massive Obamacare bureaucracy fiasco.
7
@paul To say that Republicans are about spending restraint is beyond laughable, as the ballooning of the federal deficit since the Republican tax giveaway to the wealthy demonstrated. As for Obama's stimulus plan, given all of your distortions of it I suppose you would have preferred the continuation of the decimation of the economy undertaken by Republican George W. Bush as witnessed by the Great Recession. Or the continued increase in medical bankruptcies by people without health insurance, which Republicans are trying to return us to with new skimpy plans and ACA sabotage. Or real wages that are either stagnant over the last year of the Republican-led economy. Yes, we have so much to be thankful for Republicans and President Trump.
5
@pail Spending restraint???
3
Seriously?
Have you no concept of economics, or a non-partisan memory? The facts are:
Obama inherited an economic disaster with failing and flailing markets and companies (remember President Bush asking for a “summit “ with both presidential candidates?).
The unemployment rate was the highest since the Great Depression.
Where was all of this when he left office? Significantly better.
Economies do not miraculously change for the better overnight. Coming out of such a serious hole, as the one Obama inherited, takes time. New policies take that time to go into effect and affect.
Might I also suggest you wake yourself up to the incredible annual deficit this President has created in his eighteen months compared to what Obama left after eight years.
3
Oh, come on - what do you expect a politician - even if this POTUS claims he is not one - to do.
As a Republican - we watched helplessly when the 44 th blamed the 43rd for everything but the bad weather.
He took mighty credit for having survived the 43rd induced Great Recession.
Heck, he even took credit for "resetting" our relations with Russia.
It's part of the territory.
What remains to be seen if this POTUS will blame his predecessor when economy will eventually tank - and gets away with it.
Given his tweet storming habits - all bets are off.
1
Mr.Trump does not understand the working of the economy! If he did he would not start trade wars and berate countries for manipulating their currencies.He would not punish countries with onerous tariffs.Most economists are aghast at his tactics.When he destabilizes other countries it affects the US and our trade relations.His business was so fraught with misjudgment that he went through several bankruptcies, had to close his real estate selling school and was at a point where banks would not loan to him.He does not understand economics, only sales.He may try to sell a good economy but at the rate he is going no one will buy it as both prices and interest rates rise.
12
@Janet Michael yes the university economic professors who can only teach understand much more than Turmp - right? NOT!
4
The truth is that Obama got a collapsed economy fro Bush;failed financial corp,insurance comp.,real estate and banking frauds,almost crashed stock market. Obama did turn around the country and restored faith in its institutions with his treasury sec and others.Economy was doing well in the last days of Obama administration.We have to wait and see if Trump activities are helping or ruining what ever is accomplished.International Mutual funds are certainly in collapse.
5
The left and the rest of the Democrats would rather see the US suffer than see Trump get any credit for doing well.
The New York Times itself described Obama's economy this way in August 2016: "For three quarters in a row, the growth rate of the economy has hovered around a mere 1%. In the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, the economy expanded at feeble annual rates of 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively. The initial reading for the second quarter of this year, released on Friday, was a disappointing 1.2%."
Short memories indeed.
8
Certainly, it is a great economy right now, but with the additional revenues coming into the treasury, Congress passed the largest budget ever and Trump signed it. Next year, the deficit will grow larger and it does not show any trend to shrink. We cannot continue to live off the future. In good times, you put money away. There will be no infrastructure bill or anything meaningful soon as the government cannot reign in their spending and that is Trump's issue as it's his party and his signature.
9
Democrats have never had a Donald J. Trump and hopefully never will. But it would help if we had a Democratic president with his "I alone can fix it!" self-confidence and "I make the best deals" salesmanship. What Trump has shown us is that most Americans really DO believe (or want to believe) that a "strong leader" can fix everything. That's why they don't look too closely at the results he gets and doesn't get. That's why they give him credit for the good stuff he had little or nothing to do with and let him blame others for the bad stuff. Surely, there's a Democrat somewhere who can play this game.
8
I'm sure Donald Duck will remember to express that there exists good people and talented leadership on both sides of the recovery, from President Obama through President (cough cough) Trump. Can't we all just get along?
3
Some things are hard to measure. Others can be measured more precisely. When Obama left office he handed Trump a budget deficit of $548 billion. The budget deficit this year will be $833 billion and is projected to be more than $1 trillion by 2020. So tell me again how great the economy is.
15
Thank you President Trump for our growing economy and shrinking unemployment. Well done .
6
@Common ground - you're always hilarious, which I enjoy very much. Next month new levels of people will begin losing their jobs because of tariffs, not to mention the $1.00 stores have become the $10.00 stores! Congrats
6
The crucial question is "why are the Democrats so poor at articulating a compelling counter message?" For at least two years the predominant economic story was that the Obama recovery was the most anemic in history. Republicans screamed that Obama's deficit spending would cripple the country. They now rallied under Trump to increase the deficit by one trillion dollars. Where is the unified party voice explaining to voters the Republican hypocrisy and the damage this deficit will cause? Without that, Trump will continue to be an economic genius to multi-millions of Americans who know only that their pay checks are a little larger, the stock market is way up, and unemployment is near record lows.
7
@PeterKa, exactly. I think it was because a lot of Democrats in Congress weren't ready for a black man as President either. Unlike Republicans, they did not work with Obama and help him , defend him or tout his progress and successes. They sure did blamed him for their failures though. He didn't do enough for them, they would say but what did they do for him? They decided to be Republican lite preferring to fall back on their own prejudices. Black Democrats spoke up but were afraid to go to far less they lose white support.
I suggest that you refrain from arguing how our economy went from downturn to upturn. 75 years after the Depression, there is no consensus of how we got out of it. Leading candidates are World War II, the New Deal, Keynesian Economics, and the free market. Advocates of each are predictable. Economics and politics are deeply intertwined. I find little intellectual integrity among the countless scholars who have weighed in on the subject. If you engage in the debate, you will find yourself making stuff up, just like everyone else. When we vote, many of us are foolishly guided by the state of the economy, which is to say that many of us haven't a clue about what really matters on Election Day.
4
@michjas I am no economic expert myself, but chances are, if you keep giving tax cuts to billionaires and corporations for a lengthy period of time, (i.e.2001-2008), then bail them out with our taxes, it will certainly affect/effect the economy. Oh and all those promises about those breaks invigorating the economy, the hens have come home to roost, inflation.
The dollar stores are now the $2.97 stores, soon to reach $4.00, and that's not GDP growth.
7
Some hard news about the rest of the world rather than about perceptions here would be more valuable in this space.
1
@Rdeannyc
How hard news do you want? We are already in very hard predicament with this administration. This piece is worth to print and be read. These perceptions reflect the sentiments of its readers who cares.
2
A few obvious points:
1.- Every president takes ownership of good economic news and blames the previous administrations for bad news.
2.- A bit more aggressiveness while defending his economic performance, defending our jobs and attacking our enemies, as in Syria's red line, would have greatly benefited Obama and the country.
3.- It is highly doubtful that the current great economic news will last through Trump's term. Then what?
5
When BHO took office, he couldn’t help but “succeed”; the economy had nowhere to go but up. History teaches that the economy ALWAYS improves, spectacularly, after crashes.
But BHO did his damndest to prevent that from happening. NO program he undertook did anything more than bloat the deficit; EVERY proposal failed on its own terms. Remember when he told the country that the economy would crash again if the GOP failed to extend unemployment benefits AGAIN. They didn’t. And it didn’t. BHO made specific predictions about the fraudulent “stimulus”; it failed to meet any of them. And what more can be said about the execrable ACA?
BHO accomplished the nigh on impossible. In the teeth of a huge recession, which should have produced a big rebound, he managed to produce the slowest recovery in history, never once reaching 3% growth. Only GOP “obstruction” prevented BHO from consistently doubling down on economic snake oil; “this dose is SURE to work!!”
DT, on the other hand, got a decent economy, which easily could have tanked if he’d raised taxes or followed leftist advice. He didn’t. And it didn’t.
Credit where it’s due. WJC gets the credit for the results of GOP spending restraint and tax cuts on the rich: prosperity and surpluses. W got the blame when leftist “affordable housing” policies tanked the entire economy. BHO deserves the blame for rotten policy which produced bad results; DT deserves the credit for good policy which produced good results.
14
Thanks for the insight Q. How does Trump have the best economy in history AND a trillion dollar deficit this year? That’s a real puzzlement.
17
@Doug Lowenthal It's like government spending is propping things up or something. Imagine what Obama could have done if Republicans let him spend like they've let Trump spend...
1
@Michael- The depression Obama faced was a result of deregulation and greed. Liberals had no say in anything under Bush's last 4 years. As to the rate of recovery, you can thank the Banks for that. They took the money from the Government and spent it on buying other banks instead of loaning it out. Trump deserves the credit for annual Trillion Dollar Deficits, destruction of NATO, Social Security, National Parks, etc.
11
The fault lies with Obama color. That is the reason he gets no credit even though he became President with 10% Unemployment
25
@Marcus Aurelius, and it was the only reason why the unqualified trump was elected .
Unemployment is at an 18-year low. Numerous indicators show a “booming” or “roaring” economy. The run of economic expansion is just 10 months away from beating the all-time record. Corporate profits are soaring. But on Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the past 12 months “real” average hourly wages—that is, wages adjusted for inflation—fell 0.4 percent. And even though the average workweek increased over that year, real average weekly earnings were down by 0.1 percent for the same period despite the extra time spent on the job. The Economic Policy Institute analyzed the numbers over the past 44 years and found that net productivity had risen 77 percent, but hourly pay adjusted for inflation had increased just 12.4 percent. The vast bulk of financial benefits from that extra productivity has gone to top corporate executives and corporate profits.
14
Partisan divide, trump derangement syndrome, low tolerance for big mouthed bullies who seemingly take forever to get what's coming to them, whatever the reason beneath the reason, to allow Trump credit for anything cannot come before making him face the music for everything else.
16
No doubt Trump's huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy are responsible for the seemingly robust economy. The problem is that someone is eventually going to have to pay for these tax cuts. And it will probably be the middle class and poor (as usual). Anyone can create a facade of prosperity and well-being by deficit spending. But eventually the chickens will come home to roost. And once again the democrats will have to fix the economy the republicans wrecked.
24
@Nathan Actually, there's plenty of doubt whether the tax bill has had any measurable effect yet. This is the inertia and momentum of Obama's recovery.
Wait until something goes wrong. Then let's see how Team Dotard deals with it, and the results.
1
Something Obans did that Trump is not trying to undo ?
5
@kagni
No, he's just taking credit for the Obama recovery after the financial crisis which, to remind everybody, did not happen on Obama's watch, it happened on Bush's watch.
The guy is such a joke. Unfortunately, not a funny joke.
4
He's trying, with his ridiculous trade war, but so far it's not working, thank God.
2
It is about time for Trump to tell the truth and say something nice about President Obama.
10
Republicans like to pretend that the economy was terrible under Obama & that nearly the exact same economy is great under Trump, because that pretense keeps them in power. Period.
Let's look at what they have, indeed, done:
1. The deficit has soared, owing to the Trump tax cut for the one percent.
2. A trade war is underway.
3. The implementation of protectionist tariffs is being paid for by consumers, who are seeing higher prices for goods, which effectively cancel out any tax cut advantage.
4. Fewer people have access to health insurance. Even more people will find themselves without insurance at the end of this year, owing to the elimination of the ACA's pre-existing condition clause. Again, higher prices for insurance cancel out tax cuts.
5. The movement to raise the minimum wage was blocked.
6. Bond markets are over-leveraged & could implode, in turn wreaking havoc on endowments & pension funds.
7. Farmers & small businesses are losing foreign sales, again due to tariffs.
8. More middle-class people all over the country are being subjected to double taxation, owing to new tax laws.
The rich get even more of the pie, & the rest of us get even less. As long as their activities keep putting more money into their pockets, they are going to keep up the pretense that the economy is on the right track with them at the helm. Why would they give up such a convenient position & admit that their policies are designed to enrich themselves and impoverish everyone else?
33
You forgot 7a: our tax dollars are being spent to prop up farmers Trump hurt with his dumb tariffs. As usual he makes a stupid decision which costs a fortune, and someone else pays.
5
As long as the economy does well for the RICH, count on 'wanna be rich' - Trump. It has done well, but NOT because of Pumpkin Pie Face Trump! Give the Working Class a GREAT deal of credit for the building and keeping our economy strong.
7
As referred to in Roger Cohen's column in the Times, Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post has been tabulating the Fake President's falsehoods and misstatements since he assumed office. Astonishingly, they presently number over 4,200, and keep growing of course!
It would be most interesting to know how many of that egregious number represent Trump's fabrications concerning the vastly improving state of the economy since he assumed office. I suspect that a heathy percentage of the aggregate do consist of a boldface overhyping of his claimed stewardship over this fictitious economy. He cannot help himself, as an addict of prevarication fulfilling his unprecedented historical destiny and role as America's Con Man-in-Chief. Any comparison with his predecessor is to judge the occasionally gilded words of a boy scout versus the persistent, pathological tweets of a very damaged narcissist.
7
"He made his name as a celebrity tycoon."
Donald Trump is a celebrity tycoon in the same way that Superman is a real entity fighting for truth, justice and the American way. The core cult of Trump supporters should entertain themselves with comic books, and leave the harsh reality of dealing with the real world to the rest of us.
14
The economy did improve mostly during the Obama period.
The reason is simple: except for the first two years, the Republicans controlled the Congress. Thus, no new laws could be passed. No tax cuts, no big deficit spending.
As a result of that and good policy by the Fed, natural
Capitalism took hold and the economy recovered.
Trump and the current Congress has supercharged it with tax cuts that are twice too big, albeit in the exact correct places. And they have prevented big spending increases.
As a result, the next recession will be worse than if they had not cut taxes or only cut them half as much as theydid.
2
American democracy is at a precarious point. The country is experiencing a constitutional crisis of a different sort than what has been spoken about lately. The authors of the Constitution assumed that the three branches of government would defend their co-equal power status, and that the resulting checks and balances would prevent excessive accumulation of power by any one branch. Instead what is happening now is that the Republican Congress has wholly and voluntarily deferred its power to the president, and are busily stacking the judiciary so that it too capitulates to the president's authority.
Thus Trump is well along the path to becoming the first American strongman president. Like most dictators, he employs propaganda as a tactic to advance his progress. His claims of credit for the economy are just another instance of his pure, purposeful spin.
Scary thing is, it's working. One upshot is that Trump's contra-factual alt-reality has gotten enough believers in influential positions that it is entirely possible he remains in office despite his criminally corrupt and morally reprehensible behavior.
Once Trump secures his SCOTUS nominee, expect more propaganda. And lawlessness. And acts of raw power.
9
Obama was a humble man who preferred to let the numbers speak for themselves. Donald Trump is a carnival barker who is out to sell himself as the "Greatest Show On Earth."
It seems that P.T. Barnum was right. There is a sucker born every minute.
16
Why do we give any credit for any accomplishments to an individual who struggles when writing a complete sentence?
11
Obama was a gentleman. Intelligent, thoughtful, patient, calm and steady. He saved the US from a second Depression. He got no help from the Republicans and he gets no credit for having saved us from disaster. He has been followed by a loud, vulgar oaf...a charlatan...a grifter. He is a racist and sexist. He offends our allies and flatters our enemies. He lost the popular vote. He is unfit for office. Now he and his minions are laying claim to the for the todays "good" economy after planting the seeds for another economic implosion with another unjust tax cut. History will not judge Trump the buffoon well.
53
Its as if after his first year in office, President Richard Nixon claimed full responsibility for the successful Apollo 11 Space Mission (which landed Neal Armstrong on the Moon), when in fact the Apollo Space Mission to the moon was announced and established by Democratic President John F. Kennedy, in 1961.
In contrast to Nixon's humbling acknowledgement that the monumental efforts realized during his Administration for our countries success in Space were begun in previous Administrations, It would take the ego the size of a Donald J. Trump's to claim (only two years into his own Administration) full responsibility for the current economic turn-around that ,in fact, his predecessor - President Barrack Obama- labored for so valiantly during the entire previous eight years of Obama's office.
Granted,Trump Inc may currently indeed con a few of the weak minded or self agendized with his traveling carnival show, but history will not be fooled. And I anticipate that Trump's contribution to our nation's well being will simply be relegated to a foot note, while informed historians devote chapters to the long term contributions his immediate predecessor has made to our country.
12
Revealing writing by Patricia Cohen. The views of the trump people described in this article are those of some of the trumpkins I know. Their simpleminded message?
1) The economy was horrible under Obama
2) The economy all of a sudden became fantastic under trump because he improved business confidence.
3) trump is a great businessman.
Trumpkins don't understand the complexity of the economy and believe trump's nonsense.
For the economy, George W. Bush started a strategy for reviving the economy by appointing Ben Bernanke. Conservative republicans didn't like Quantitative Easing and trump insulted Bush, but now trump steals credit for the recovery. And his dumb trumpkins believe it.
Under Obama, the Dow went from 6,500 to 19,000. but trump idiots will divert the conversation by misusing the unemployment numbers for people not looking for work, claiming that means the entire Obama economy was bad. Trumpkins don't know that there are matters of degree and history to the economy. When I ask them if they want to go back to 2009, their eyes glaze over and repeat that the Obama economy was all bad.
Improvement in consumer confidence is that; it improved in the Obama years and continued to improve. It didn't turn the economy around overnight.
And intelligent people know that trump's business has been through 6 bankruptcies. Carly Fiorina ran a vastly more dynamic business than did trump. Trump is a failed businessman, bailed out by laundered Russian money.
19
@Charles
The funny thing about Fiorina is that she boasted about how much she increased the "top line." The "bottom line," it turned out, wasn't so hot at hp. I don't know why Republican businessmen blather nonsense like we're all idiots.
But, she did, at least run a real business.
I honestly don't know why people love Trump. It's a cult thing. Irrational, and based on pure hatred of Obama. Just read some of the resentful nonsense the Trumpists write in these comments. Factually incorrect, even theoretically incorrect.
Oh well.
5
Actually, it was Obama who was left with a financial mess from Bush. The new president (aka bankruptcy king) has the U.S. headed for never before seen debt. I mean, I don't believe one would hire a chef to repair a vehicle, why hire someone who rarely paid workers wages via bankruptcy to have a say in our economy?
14
Of course, Donald a narcissist will brag about "his economy "!
Anyone with half a brain KNOWS what President Obama inherited from George W. Bush in 2008!
THANK YOU, OBAMA!
18
Trump "forgetting" President Obama's launch of our economic recovery from wBush's Great Recession rates merely as a lie of omission. This is as good as we get with President Pathological. We're too busy with his flat-out lies.
8
Trump supporters don't analyzr anything. If it's not the truth, then oh well. If Mr. Trump says so, must be gospel.
And now we can have the infamous jobs for environment trade off. When people get sick from the polluted environment, they will chalk it up to the cost of doing business.
A sick, sick country.
7
Obama's method was embodied in his famous quote about what a President's job is: "Don't do anything, stupid." I'm joking, but truthfully he kind of just let the economy take its course. That's why recovery took so long.
1
@rpe123
I'm sorry, but Obama was not an economist. He relied on experts like Bernanke, who did plenty to keep us from tanking. Did you know Bernanke is an expert on the 1929 depression? The whole thing couldn't have been in more capable hands.
What Obama meant is that presidents should not muck things up, for instance, the way our State Department has to make nice with our NATO allies after Trump attacks them. It's moronic that we have a government where the president has no clue what he's doing and his staff has to do damage control.
So, think what you will of Obama, but he at least tried to get us something that every developed country has except us: a health care system that covers every American. And, he can write and speak full sentences and doesn't sound like a moron in an interview.
And finally, go look at a graph of GDP over time. While some will argue that the slope of the recovery should have been steeper, I maintain that the slope before the crisis was artificially high due to the real estate bubble. Considering the long term trend, I had no problem with the rate of recovery.
4
Given Obama had to oversee the “Great Bailouts” it’s no wonder that people associate him with economic woes. It’ll be the same for whoever has to fix the economy when the inevitable recession hits, exacerbating the unnecessarily confrontational policies enacted by Trump and multiplying the national debt that he decided not to pay down despite the strong economy.
It’s nothing to do with “being good” at telling people things.
2
The upturn is Obama's - and it is Trump's lucky inheritance, so he claims it all (consonant with his attempts to eradicate everything good that Obama did in his term). So when it tanks thanks to Trump's asinine trade war and insane tax cuts, will he own it then, too? Don't hold your breath....
6
Dear Republicans,
You should take a victory lap. You have already won your war, started in 1980, to support business interests, owners, and the investor class.
The problem today is that the pendulum has swung too far. Arguably, labor unions were too powerful by the late 1970s. American companies were not competitive (in particular the auto industry).
But all one needs to do is to look at the rise of income and wealth inequality over the last 35 years to see how the reaction to that period has gone too far the other way. Labor has been decimated, while capital has thrived. Real wages for the bottom half of workers have stagnated, while real wages and wealth for the top half have grown exponentially. Thomas Picketty and Angus Deaton are right.
In the 19th century, Karl Marx correctly diagnosed the problem, but offered the wrong solution. The natural order of things is indeed that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. And there is a natural tension between labor and capital. But Marxism and Communism are failed solutions.
It turns out that the best solution is well-regulated capitalism. The regulation (checks and balances) need not always come from the government. Labor unions (part of the private sector) can work very effectively to ensure that productivity and profit gains are equitably passed along to workers as well as owners, and that both parties mutually succeed.
Social Darwinism is not the answer. To argue that is to reduce humans to the level of animals.
8
"An Economic Upturn Begun Under Obama..."
that headline is, of course correct and Trump with his incoherent protectionsim may end that upturn very soon, but this headline writer seems to be competing with those at Fox News to make everything partisan and blaming/crowing louder than the other side. Let's not lower ourselves. Trump will boast and posture and tweet out purile insults. Fox lives by creating venimous hyperbole from whole cloth. Let us and especially dear God pkease let the New York Times stay dignified and open-minded, relying on facts presented objectively, and let's hope it catches on.
2
When Obama received good economic reports during his presidency, Trump called it fake news. When he gets good economic reports, it’s due to his masterful business skills. Such a total fraud. And his gullible cult of followers continue to swallow it whole. Let’s put a stop to this fake presidency America!Vote them all out starting in November.
8
Obama deserves very little credit here..very little
3
Obama makes markets go up; Trump makes markets go down.
6
The economy is doing well DESPITE Trump. The years-long paradigm shift to service-oriented and more and more automation has occurred. DESPITE Trump, we have adjusted brilliantly to whatever a shifting economy means to each of us: changing careers, multiple jobs, more education if needed. DESPITE Trump and his occasional stock-market dip tweets, he has little to nothing to do with how each of us get up every day, do what we have to do, adapt, and prosper best we can.
8
President Obama, it is true, never sought credit for the improving economy under his watch. It simply wasn’t in his make-up to strut and beat his chest and crow, “hey, look at what I did!”
That is the way that a narcissistic man, badly in need of acceptance and confirmation, would behave. Why else would this president claim credit for something not entirely his own? Not only is Donald Trump a liar, he’s a thief.
All this article does is to confirm that the optics of economics is political and exclusively driven by party affiliation. So it’s hardly eye-opening that Republicans everywhere swallow up the jumped-up Trump narrative of business acumen-become economic near-historic greatness when 85%-90% of the party is of the absurd belief that their president is doing his job superbly.
When Mr. Obama was in office—especially during his first months in office, Republicans in Congress did all they could to blame W’s mismanagement of the economy on him—and to throw sand into his policies to revive the recovery by throwing a lifeline to the auto industry. From two (ginned-up) wars on the Clinton credit card, Mr. Obama didn’t have much to work with.
That his stewardship of the economy has been steamrolled by the bluster of Trump’s lies is hardly surprising.
21
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
what Mr. Obama was ALWAYS saying about the economy were excuses why he couldn't get jobs going. ''They aren't coming back'' was his most obvious excuse.
But losers and vandals get really good at offering excuses.
2
My friend, your comment leaves me (again) nostalgic for President Obama who, if he can be accused of anything, had perhaps too much trust that right would speak for itself. He is not a self-promoter by nature, and was up against vicious conmen.
President Obama was a leader because he worked for results, not for personal glory (unlike you know who).
Thanks, as always, for writing.
6
“hey, look at what I did!”
Oh but he DID say essentially that when he said "You DIDN'T do that", implying that the government did. And he was dead wrong.
1
In truth - and let's use the very graphics created by the talented NYT staff (you can find them here) - President Obama received a bump that was meandering as President Bush left office, then check the quarterly, precipitous drop in GDP from mid-2014 to mid-2016. Silicon Valley, and not Barack Obama, pushed the GDP higher in the middle of his two terms. The current upswing has nothing whatsoever to do with President Trump's predecessor.
2
Yes and no on all your key empirical points.
Very sad that you invoked “salesmanship” and a whiff of racism.
Obama terrified the business community, the engine of job creation. So, too, does Trump.
In the short term, Trump is proving more helpful.
1
The Dems and GOP are one and the same two-headed snake. Bottom line is that they're both bound and tied to corporations. We, the Proletariat, will never know of their Limousine and jet-set lifestyles.
5
It is Trump’s to tout only because the democrats are terrible at marketing and propaganda and the media’s willingness to promote Trump’s lies about the economy. The same statistics under Obama reflected a weak economy but magically when a Trump walks into the White House those numbers are great and his to claim—ridiculous! There is no rational reason for the republicans or Trump to claim credit for this ongoing recovery. Name the policy that the republicans supported under Obama or enacted since Trump took office that had helped the economy. Do not try the weak argument that deregulation or the just enacted tax cut had anything to do with our continued economic success. The party of “No” can’t claim that their obstructionist behavior of the previous 8 yrs has helped the economy. The economy is successful in spite of Manchurian candidate Trump’s efforts to destroy it and the republican party’s attempt to sabotage Obama. It took Bush’s unpaid tax cuts and unpaid wars x2, 6 years to bring us down and I’m sure it won’t take Trump that long. Trump is a grifter and working his scam to tee.
2
No, no, no, Trumps's upturn is wholly identifiable from Obama's. It started with the promise of a Trillion Dollar interest free, payback free loan to America's corporations, followed by irresponsible deregulation of just about everything, and a ballooning of Wall Street profits which never got to Main Street. That's Trumps upturn.
12
Obama, the “you didn’t build that” guy, spent most of his time trying to figure out how to stymie business.
Now that his poor policies are no longer and the economy is improving, he wants credit.
How cute.
6
President Obama himself does not go around asking to be credited for the economy; the column's authors are looking objectively at what happened under his watch.
Incidentally, what does 'stymying business' entail? Workers' rights, quality benefits, environmental responsibility, a fair tax system, living wages, financial regulation? What respectable agencies wouldn't abide by those? What kind of economy wouldn't include them?
6
@Ken
Enjoy your totally unfounded fantasy:
You conflate Obama's understated approach with 'poor policies' .... I'm sure you conflate Trumps constant bragging with brilliance and manliness ... Remember the phrase:
'None are so blind as those who will not see' ... Perfect.
6
@Ken
Ben Bernanke turned the economy around. He is an expert on the Great Depression, and he put what he knew to good use.
By the way, where did you read that Obama is taking credit? He was a gentleman the whole way through, he never blamed Bush, and he never boasted as the economy recovered.
I read comments like yours, nasty and completely unfounded, and I wonder how we'll ever truly be united as a country.
4
So then if Obama is to be given thanks for the economic upturn then he must be equally credited with fewer companies posting profits, which the NYT recently reported on a handful of companies such as Apple, Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent) earned nearly 50 % of all profits.
So give a thanks to Obama for looking out for the little guy.....
2
@MDCooks8
A surprisingly high amount of those companies sat on profits, was it to make sure Obama didn't get credit ?
Now they're doing stock buy backs to raise their value.
It's ok - keep loving Trump and keep dissing Obama and keep slipping into willful ignorance ..
we'll be ok without you.
5
As well he should. The business tax reform was a big move. The market started rising soon after his election. He deserves some credit now, because you know he'll be getting the blame when things head south.
2
Bush and Obama prevented a depression but their was great debt, a great loss of wealth, and no effort to make the economy grow with government help so it took the entirety of Obama’s terms in office to recover. Trump is a braggart and a liar so naturally he takes credit. However, his extreme policies have already set the stage for a lot of financial problems in the future.
7
The economy is doing well for the wealthiest people but not everyone. It’s not so great for people who are working but not making a living wage or those who haven given up looking for work or people who are wiped out financially by a health issue or many other people.
But of course Trump will say it’s great and it’s all because of him.
10
Of course Trump has made more noise about economic gains than thoughtful, intelligent, careful Obama did during his Administration. A braggart always brags.
8
During The Great Recession (Paul Krugman called it The Second Depression), banking bailouts and stimulus measures were started by Bush 43 and expanded by Obama. As of January 2018, the government recovered the total $626B and profit of $87B. The Obama administration rolled up their sleeves and worked to clean the mess. Donald, Ross, Mnuchin, and Navarro can not take credit. He is at his Bedminster property watching Fox channel, tweeting, and golfing. Hardly working.
8
Pres Trump has had no effect on the positive trends that began years before he was even a candidate.
He has reversed the trend of lowering deficits, and likely the lowering percentage of people with no health insurance.
7
We have two economies: one that's going gangbusters for the 1 percent with tax cuts, and a roaring stock market; the other for the 99 percent who have stagnant wages, higher health care costs, higher prices due to Trump's tariffs, and a general feeling that they've been conned and ripped-off. This is why "the economy" is a "no sale" even in red state America where farmers are feeling the tariff squeeze and don't want a Trump bailout/bribe and factory workers see their wages going nowhere and fear their jobs will soon disappear as well either due to the trade war, plant closings, automation, or outsourcing. This is why the blue wave has been rolling across America and may be a tsunami by November. Will the Trump over-stimulated bubble burst by then? October is coming. And then comes November when voters will reject the policies of our oligarch-in-chief and his crony capitalists for one where everyone gets a real piece of the pie with good paying jobs that include job security instead of the trickle-down crumbs and the immense insecurity that comes with it.
5
I understand that the state of the economy has political implications, but the reality is that Trump isn't building the economy. I am. I'm the one who works 6 days a week and who can't remember his last vacation. It isn't that hard for a president to do a good job with the US economy because by and large we Americans are practically programmed to work. The Great Recession happened because over a sustained period the GW Bush administration assaulted the US economy through unwise decisions until it practically collapsed. That was unnecessary. Pretty much all a president has to do to manage the economy well is to mostly get out of the way and let we the people do it for him. Trump is doing just that, playing golf, tweeting and falling asleep in meetings while I do the work that makes America great.
9
@Joe
Very well put - You've combined basic economic wisdom with touching personal commentary - Stay strong .... I have no idea of your political position, race or color or creed, marital status or taste in movies or favorite sport, but please take care of YOU ... I'm a fan
4
The coordination between Trump and right wing propaganda. The economy was the worst ever in 2016 and best ever in March 2017. Nothing happened except Trump got installed in White House by Russians.
We live in an weird time when reality is manufactured on demand.
8
"It dovetails with a narrative about Donald Trump that has existed for a long time: that he’s a businessman" The six time bankrupt president only plays a business man on the teevee
10
So what? Obama did amazing things, yet never connected to the American people. He let Geithner save Wall Street, not crucify it, which was what America, and the world, wanted.
I’ve heard, someone said, they’re saying that when the current 55 and older cohort dies off, the Republicans will be a fringe, irrelevant party. Sounds good, but unfortunately, I won’t be around.
7
Regardless of who DESERVES the praise, Trump will declare it for himself. However, if there were a downturn two years from now, that would be the fault of Obama or, somehow, Hillary. Similarly, if a drug gang shoot-out somewhere in Central America occurred tomorrow, that would be blamed on Robert Mueller.
10
How long will either economic spurt last with tarrifs?
9
Of trump is taking credit for the upturn in the economy, What did you expect!!
More and more citizens are finally coming around realizing trump is an embarrassment to his office and that is being kind.
9
There's a fallacy in logic called "post hoc, ergo propter hoc," it happened after; therefore, it happened because.
There were X amount of jobs created after Trump was elected; therefore they happened because of Trump.
It's a confusion that all politicians play on, not just Trump. Maybe a bit of baby logic would make voters more aware.
5
August 11, 2018
A master for the tout of his own magnificent delusions - for sad to say President Trump is not inclined to historical relationships built of trust and relational departmental achievements. So we have endless Trumpian blustering and that my dear journalist is off target and therefore it up to best in reporting to acknowledge the findings in the context of superior journalism that we can enjoy - and as always herewith.
JJA Manhattan, N.Y.
2
Come on!
There is no excuse for the fact-based media to preface ALL talk of the economy with FACTS, not Trump-trolling.
Everybody and their dog considers Trump a liar- even the ones who support him admit that.
So, give readers the facts since the Recession. Not "Trump-lite" but how this economy would be in cinders if a guy like Donald had been at the helm with all his flim-flam still feathering his nest like he does daily from our WH.
Remember this is the guy who is paying off multiple cheaters, has a huge number of conflicts of interest, communist in-laws who just jumped the immigrant queue to become brand-new chain immigrant citizens, etc. "Nobody respects women more than I do" and other various self-congratulatory fictions are not the measure of Reality for America.
7
@Kay Johnson: "There is no excuse for the fact-baed media NOT to preface all talk of the economy with facts"
1
Once again the great debate who gets credit for the economy. Speaking for myself a small business owner during the Obama years 70% of my investment dollars went into complaince 30% into R&D. this was great for laywers auditors state and federal employees and increased my cost of goods sold and ultimatly lowering my margins and profits. Under the Trump administration, I have reduced my investment in compliance no longer fear the federal government will regulate me out of business invested my company and expanded my workforce by 30% and improved my margins and increased my profits.
Bottom line I am more profitable under Trump than Obama. We can fight like five year olds who should get credit or just enjoy the ride and tip our hat to the man in office or respectfully keep our thoughts to ourselves
4
@Kevin
May I ask what sort of horrible, onerous regulations have been lifted for you?
I find most people who complain about regulations are just greedy.
3
Naturally, the Narcissist-in-Chief takes credit for something he's had nothing to do with, while Obama never gloated or bragged.
What has Trump done economiclly that he can take credit for, except encouraging the Republicans to cut taxes for the rich, enrich himself and drive up the deficit? Oh, and impose harmful tariffs on our allies that will hurt his own countrymen.
11
Obama had to work against an openly hostile and intransigent congress. I’m certain he would have liked to accomplish more. Trump has a congress behind him and a willful, bellicose media apparatus. Still, just wait, he and fellow Republicans will crash the economy and yet another Democrat will step in to right the ship.
11
Trump in 2016:
“
Don't believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent.
“
By that logic and as unemployment has fallen less than 2% under him, the unemployment rate under Trump should be 40%.
Right?
Have we forgotten how he lied and made up economic numbers to make his case for political change?
While the press was pinching his cheeks for “innovative bluffing”...
That is Trump. Accept his version of the reality. Not any objective measure. Remember his war on CBO?
Trump fooled the country once with metrics pulled out of thin air. It’s time to set the record right with how Ordinary Americans, not his Mar-a-Lago buddies, are no better off in the economy under him. While their children will suffer from the crushing burden of deficit and debt.
Remember national debt, Republicans? Remember the deficit? Or are those just metrics you pull out to cripple a Democratic President and tie his hands?
16
Trumponomics hasn't kicked in yet. Stand by. The trade war thing alone is going to curtail growth. The withdrawal from being a participant in multilateral agreements is going to create disadvantage. Trump is Putin's little wrecking ball.
10
That’s the way it works in politics. Don’t feel sorry for politicians, they volunteered for this game. Clinton got the credit for a recovery that began during Bush 43 and didn’t get the blame for not seeing 9/11, even though the hijackers entered the country and planned the attack on his watch. Hoover got the blame for the Great Depression which he didn’t cause and FDR got the credit for the recovery which had nothing to do with him but really was Uncle Adolph’s accomplishment.
2
I don’t think any one person is responsible for the US economy. I do recall that President Obama and his associates did say that the days of growth significantly in excess of 2% were behind us. I don’t know, and neither does anyone else know, how the economy will play out over the long term. I do believe the significant reductions in corporate taxes encourages business investment in our country and so would credit the current administration for that.
1
@TW SmithBut they did not reinvest. They simply bought back shares in their own companies.
5
@Red Sonya
Some did indeed, but many are taking advantage of the accelated depreciation and high cash-flow to expand, thus creating new job opportunities. Why do you think unemployment is so low, bad economic conditions?
By the way, when companies buy back their own stock the money doesn’t go to money heaven, it goes to whomever sold the shares which these investors typically reinvest in other companies. This business about companies being evil for buying back there own shares has gained far greater currency (pun intended) than it deserves.
With minimal fact checking or refutation from a good part of the media, Trump was able to convince many during the campaign that the Department of Labor Statistics under the Obama administration was disseminating false unemployment numbers of 4.6%. Focusing solely on data that showed some workers had dropped out of the labor market, he went on to make up a false figure that the unemployment rate was actually 40%, Once he was elected, his press secretary Sean Spicer thought it a great joke to say the administration now accepted the Bureau's statistics,
7
Fox News is a major part of the problem along the entire right-wing media complex. they were happy to shelter their viewers from having to recognize the improving economy under Obama and once Trump was elected they stopped lying.
Basically a large section of society is only tangentially voting based on what's happening in real life. Their other views follow this pattern. this is why an economy is growing at a slower rate than it was 3 years ago is being rating dramatically better then the previous few years.
6
@Paronis I'm sorry, but by which metric(s) is the economy growing at a slower rate than it did in 2015?
2
It's interesting. Just yesterday (Friday, August 10), the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that from July 2017-July 2018 the percentage change in real average hourly earnings for all employees, seasonally adjusted, was an amazing 0.1% increase. Even more amazing was that that increase was not due to actual wages (which declined 0.2%) but to an 0.3% increase in the number of hours worked per week. Which leads to the obvious question: For whom is this booming economy booming?
18
"By nearly every standard measure, the American economy is doing well" except "sluggish wage growth, income inequality and the erosion of middle-class jobs". The article rightly points out that the net effect of the other measures is that they "outshine(s) the economy’s weak spots". It is likely by far the strongest reason 76% of Republicans in your "SurveyMonkey" poll think next year will be good and likely support the President. It probably why they are able to disregard a President who lies and then denies in the same sentence and is abhorrent to their other values, why they can ignore child separations and taunting of allies and promotion of war. The irony is that these same conditions would have existed with a Clinton presidency who would have tackled inequality without the expense of economic growth. It matters not to the economy or the down trodden that the President is about to undergo impeachment, if November weighs in democrats favor, as seems likely. Its odd that those who did vote for him, likely coerced by Russian propaganda which cast Clinton as a criminal likely did not live through her husband's Presidency.
Ah the nineties, those were the days.
6
I so often hear President Trump commending his Democratic predecessor for starting our economic recovery. (Sarcastic joke alert)
8
Democrats are way too modest, too nice, too non-confrontational for the USA.
This war won't by won with peace, love & good manners.
The voters that Dems needed to have won were the WWE & Nascar-watching anti-intellectual set who distrust the city & college-dwelling liberals but who are a pivotal bloc that benefits from Democratic policies.
Sure: Opinion-writers, late-night TV hosts, Maddow, the late Ed Schultz in his heyday, & others, have been relentlessly & brilliantly on the attack since Iraq, but they're dismissed as 'haters', 'fake news' etc, because they're not running.
Democratic candidates needed to have embodied that kind aggressive, raw intellectual power & passion, fought relentlessly against Republican lies like the big one here foisted by the present president, & aggressively campaigned for positive policy positions.
Every time Trump touts 'his' economy, the Dem candidates need to shout back: "Thank you, Obama!"
I've been aligned with Avenatti's position since Gingrich:
"When They Go Low, We Hit Harder!"
Is Avenatti the candidate to do it? Good luck.
Did Democrats ever have that smart, quick-comeback, fighting spirit to take down Republican lies in real time?
Think Elliot Spitzer for one (but in the typical Republican double-standard, he got taken down for exactly what Trump is accused of).
Dem's best bet for the true fighter who could have taken on the arch-bully was Bernie Sanders.
Good luck finding another like him!
9
@Tldr
Yeah, right? At least Spitzer went high-class.
I'm sad to concur, we have to fight fire with fire now. Intellect, intelligence, competence and decency alone are just no match for rampant stupidity. There's got to be a little more roaring thunder and calling out of lying grifters.
I often think of Michael Bloomberg, if you think pitting a real billionaire against a fake billionaire is a good idea. At least he had the courage to call Trump a con man.
I'm at a loss.
1
What a shock, trump is claiming credit for Obama’s accomplishments. Obama thought-wrongly- that Americans would appreciate the thoughtfulness and hard work that it took to undo the disastrous economic downturns of the Bush years. He didn’t get out in front of the crowds to crow about his saving us from another Depression. He was about us, not him. And it takes time to right the Ship of State, momentum that has now taken hold.
But alas, we are a country that celebrates celebrity, that is about flash and hype. We now have the culmination of all that hollow tinsel and glittered brass tackiness that is the empty essence of the current President.
Actual accomplishment doesn’t matter. Facts don’t matter. We are in a post-fact existence.
Ratings are all that matter now. And the con-in-chief is the master of that game. He owns us all, because we have let it happen with our complacency, and our easily manipulated ignorance. Which has been, and remains, the long game for Bannon, Norvquist, and all those who wish to privatize our once proud nation. The current President is their perfect tool. Someone with zero interest in the Public Good, and whose self-serving zeal for any kind of attention motivates his every tweet.
This sugar-fueled economic uptick will come crashing down when it’s time to deal with the deficit. Of course, that will be our children’s and grandchildren’s burden.
19
People have the attention spans and memories of gnats.
Yet another 'stretched truth' (being kind) that he'll get away with, and make the narrative for mid-terms and 2020.
8
Have you ever looked at the trends of various economic indicators since 2010? Do you see any inflection following trump taking office?
5
If given the opportunity Trump would cclaim to have invented the light bulb or the internet. His extreme narcissism is his primary driving force..or is it greed, hmmm. Well in any case, Obama brought us back from the brink of another Great Depression despite the years of Republican stonewalling.
Trump is trying to destroy the world economy with absurd sanctions and tariff wars for reasons know best to those that will profit most from his abuse of power. Follow the money to special interests like those that have been paying for access to Trump through his shadow companies. The Russians could buy Trump, so can any deep-pocketed corporation..just ask Michael Cohen. We can say that Trump's personal economy s certainly upturning through his own efforts.
18
Obama provided a steady hand when the economy was on the edge of disaster. The economy was good when he was elected, and wrecked by the financial crisis before he took office. A very bad break that haunted his eight years.
Unemployment declined steadily under him, and provided a good trend for Trump.
But Trump ignited the current hot economy with pro-business policies, namely reduced regulation and a focus on job creation.
Go back and look at the Dow futures on election night. A few minutes after it was apparent that he had won, futures rose and didn’t stop for months.
He created investor confidence and pro-business policies that continue to fuel our national prosperity.
Obama didn’t build that.
7
@MR Investor confidence doesn't cut it for the majority of Americans who aren't invested in stocks. What they care about and what will give Democrats big wins in November is that he's blown up the deficit, given a $1.5 trillion tax cut to people who didn't need it, and is now silent on the fact that wage growth is not keeping up with inflation.
10
@MR
I'll just reprint RK's comment here:
Just yesterday (Friday, August 10), the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that from July 2017-July 2018 the percentage change in real average hourly earnings for all employees, seasonally adjusted, was an amazing 0.1% increase. Even more amazing was that that increase was not due to actual wages (which declined 0.2%) but to an 0.3% increase in the number of hours worked per week. Which leads to the obvious question: For whom is this booming economy booming?
And, I will add, remember the financial crisis? All that optimism that real estate prices would never go down, always up, causing investors and businessmen to go berserk with greed? These people you think are brilliant are just not. They're eyes are big as saucers now because they see a way to make a quick buck.
What prosperity? For the rich, maybe. A lot of real, everyday people have not yet fully recovered from the financial crisis.
I'll be honest, I have plenty of money and am making out just fine. I'd do anything to have a decent person in the white house. I'd love to pay more taxes and have better public schools, a national health care system, and, for crying out loud, a decent living wage. What you call prosperity, I call a third-world country emerging. Billionaires and serfs.
3
Trump cares nothing for those who adore him in the worker class, it is all hot air from the Gasbag in Chief. He is most fortunate to have inherited a strong economy from his predecessor, President Obama, an infinitely more talented and skilled leader than he.
Trump, like the bull in a china shop that he is, threatens tariffs right and left, and like a petulant child prone to extorting what he wants, threatens even more when other nations of the world do not toe his line.
To Trump, this is yet another business venture, like his failed casinos and a multitude of other businesses like his golf course in Scotland which is bleeding red ink. Just give him time, just as he has decimated environmental regulations, he will decimate this economy. It is in his nature, he truly cannot help himself. And god (is such an entity exists), help Us.
28
No...It’s just the ongoing strategy of Eurocentric’s, White Nationalist and White Supremacists history of appropriating any and all success of POC as their success. And on top of that expecting our Blind Obedience to the lies about them ever accomplishing anything without thievery, false claims of superiority and violence.
If these theories are never examined as a thread of centuries of exploitation, manipulation and intent to do harm to many for a few, this nation will continue to fall from the false construct of American exceptionalism into moral decline and instability increasingly viewed as truth by Global communities.
7
"President Trump has been better able than his predecessor to spotlight economic gains, political scientists say." Meanwhile, the Democratic leaders currently in power have been singularly inept at addressing the shortcomings in Trump's and Republican's fiscal policies: Medicare goes broke in 2026 (8 years from now!); Social Security collapses in 2034 (16 years from now).
We hear nothing about these, nothing from Democrats either about what economic policies they would follow to improve the wages of those many employed in jobs that pay a minimum wage that's not rising, or whose income growth lags inflation. Not to mention the tax cut that goes largely to corporations who don't raise wages and wealthy individuals, tariffs that increase inflation, and Federal borrowing that's driving up the cost of borrowing.
What do the Democrats harp on: immigration and diversity, important but secondary to the quality of living. It's wages, job security, and interest rates, folks. No wonder Democrats do poorly: they have no coherent program to improve the lives of average Americans (and I'm not talking free college tuition—not so important when you can't put food on the table).
10
@Wilton Traveler You are not paying attention if you think Democrats harp on immigration and diversity. That is Republican filtered claptrack. The issues are affordable health care, a GOP tax policy that rewards corporations and wealthy individuals, the government attacks on programs that benefit people across the country, the corruption rampant within the Trump administration, the GOP's attacks on regulations that protect workers and citizens across the nation from both workplace injustice and environmental abuses, the deterioration of compassionate leadership around the globe, and last but not least, a basic appreciation and respect for all people. I might add, it's not Democrats who are attacking programs that would put food on people's tables. It's not Democrats who refuse to increase the minimum wage.
11
I do agree that the Democrats must do a better job getting their message out.
1
@Wilton Traveler
Social security can be fixed by removing the current cap, now around $120,000.
Medicare costs could be lowered by encouraging and funding preventive measures such as regular aerobic exercise and allowing health providers to purchase drugs at bulk cost and from out of the country.
Future economic growth could be encouraged by investing in long term solutions, especially environmentally sound ones. This, of course would require ... raising taxes !
One last point; When we talk about cutting regulation to create today's economic growth do we factor in the cost to the environment? No ... that will be paid by future generations ... Great idea, ain't it ?
6
Either the Right's got that Hot Tub Time Machine we hear about, or they're unable to read a calendar, or they're lying a lot.
I mean, I stopped counting the number of times I've seen or heard a Trumpist (Trump too, for that matter) put the start of the crash in 2008-2009, congratulate Trump for his 2016 actions as President, and so on.
Oh, well. The Right's also not too good on simple numbers, either: i mean, the DJIA went from the 8000s to about 19, 000; unemployment went from 9.8 to 4.6; deficit dropped from over a tril to maybe $500 bil, all under the dreaded Black President, and TRUMP'S the genius who Saved America?
Fun's fun, and different views or even hatreds are fine, but gee whiz, guys. Can't get the DATES right? I mean, it's not like anybody's asking you to look at graphs and recognize an up-slope.
18
@Robert
Geez. I'm always asking people to look at graphs. I guess I have to lower my expectations.
3
So by the logic of all the Democrats than your beloved Bill Clinton actually gets no credit for the economic upswing during his first term and then he set the stage in his second term for the “mortgage crisis” in 2008. Under BC lending practices were lowered so that previously unqualified home buyers would now qualify even if though in reality the buyers could not afford to buy the property within their means and still have money for other necessities.
Once again short sightedness to help the poor or was this actually well planned to keep them economically imprisoned?
4
stop blaming the poor. it was about an deregulated industry that could exploit the rules and then have people like you blame the poor for meeting the guidelines that allowed them to borrow money. loans that they could not afford if the housing bubble burst.
11
@MDCooks8: The policy continued under W. I
f you're recognizing the economy under Clinton, you also have to include that in 1999, federal government receipts exceeded expenditure for a rare time in our history. In 1996, Republican business was voting for Clinton.
The possibility of ending the federal deficit vanished under W and his Republicans. Of course, you could argue that trump has suitably insulted W and those Republicans.
Now it's trump's turn. It's been only two years, yet trumpkins believe that this is the way trump's entire term will be. trumpkins are soooo dumb.
4
Not one policy created by Trump has increased the number of jobs or the size of the economy. We can forecast that the new tax rules of the Republicans, will increase the debt to such a level that somebody, like the Chinese, will notice. It will not be good.
Now, because I am vindictive, I propose to change the tax decrease of the top 10% into a tax increase allowing us, among other things, to pay back the debt that they created. One vote, no mercy and that include the “$4,000,000,000” of Trump.
It is time to install accountability for the Republicans that have never been able to manage the economy.
23
This difference between the last Democratic administration and this republican one is the amount of zeroes and decimal points at the end of the debt and deficit.
The previous administration didn't buy it's way to prosperity and furthermore didn't make a massive shift of wealth from the poor and middle classes to the rich and corporations. (to the tune of TRILLIONS)
The last administration didn't then turn around and impose crushing new taxes (tariffs) on its base - only to use the pubic's (taxpayer's money) to prop up/buy the base in the form of subsidies.
Also the last President didn't collude/conspire with a foreign power to claim power, nor did the last President continue to enrich himself and his family by openly flaunting the emoluments clause of the Constitution. (breaking the law)
This President can claim all he wishes, but we know the truth.
98
Agreed, my friend. President Obama worked for our collective benefit. Trump works for himself, his family, his fellow over-privileged and, of course, for cheap applause at rallies.
Thanks, as always, for writing.
21
This article keeps repeating that "the economy is growing." But that's based on GDP, which has grown every year but one (2009) since 1950 and which is a poor measure of economic performance at the everyday worker level. In fact, almost all of the economic gains in recent years have gone to the already well-off, especially the investor class. Worker compensation -- wages, benefits, etc. -- has been stagnant for decades and the Trump administration is doing nothing to improve things.
24
@Emmanuel Goldstein Excellent point. The measure used for two generations is incorrect. Just in time for Trump. Makes sense. Gotta love liberal bias.
1
The Democrats have been alleging all along, even before the election, that Trump's policies would ruin the economy. Nearly 2 years later it's thriving - doing better than ever, despite Trump?? Any way one looks at it, the Democrats got it completely wrong. Now it's beginning to sound like they WANT the economy to fail, just out of spite I suppose. Nice way to look out for the working man.
8
Dave T....how long did it take Boy George and Dick Cheney to push the American economy into the grave with their 1% Tax Cuts and Deregulatory Derangement Syndrome and record income inequality policies ?
About 6 to 7 years.
Do you have access to any history books in your part of the world ?
Patience, my friend...patience.
63
@Socrates And it took the Obama administration nearly that long to get a positive trend moving again. These folks don't realize the lag time between policy and effects at all. Trump has just begun setting the stage for a destructive trend.
@Dave T
Doing better than ever? Think again ... growth in total private employment over Trump's first 18 months in office lags behind Obama's last 18 months (see BLS CES 0500000001). And, July's net monthly add is well below the 2018 monthly average.
Of course, after a significant absolute decline in our nation's deficit over Obama's 2nd term, the deficit is off and running up again .. big time.
When total private employment grows for a record 83 consecutive months as it did under Obama .. and, when wage growth isn't entirely wiped out by inflation as it has under Trump, then maybe you can toot Trump's horn for him.
17
Well begun is half done but not so fast. Obama dumped a lot of the tax payer monies to inject some juice in the economy and provide prop to lift it out of the Bush . Jr recession. Trump inherited an economy that had an anemic recovery with over 20 trillion dollar debt, most of it due to the Obama spending.
Trump's across the board tax cuts were returning a fraction of the tax payer monies. It would have been good if Trump had reversed the Bush era tax cuts which Obama seemed to have little courage to eliminate. In any case Trump should have taxed the millionaires and billionaires more and made some dent in to the Bush Obama era debt.
Some times leadership is 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration by the followers. That sums up the leadership of JFK.
In any case What difference does it make at this time as to who deserves credit. It has been 18 months since Trump took office but then who is counting and how many want to give credit where credit is due for the current robust economic growth of 4.1 % GDP.
5
In taking credit for American economic success and identifying it with his own, trump better be prepared to take the fall for the incipient economic crisis stemming from the trillion dollar debt created by his actions. Should a recession occur, it should be fairly compared with trump's own financial calamities.
26
Thank you President Obama for saving our economy. You inherited the worst economic mess is almost 80 years yet managed to save us and hand over a thriving economy to 45.
60
@Philip W What have you been drinking?! Obama's 1st term started from a recession so his growth %'s are inflated. Any economy coming out of a recession will have high Y-T-Y % changes. That said, Obama increased the debt to $20 Trillion from $10 Trillion. During his 8 years, he handcuffed businesses with a plethora of regulations that Trump has eliminated. Trump's 4.1% is growth based on recent Y-T-Y. That's a huge a accomplishment. To simplify, growing from $1000 @ 2% = $20. growing from $1000 @ 4% = $40. The net $ gain, as well as the % gain, is substantially higher. There is no comparison between Obama's socialism and Trumps capitalism.
5
You know, it would have been nice in an article with this headline to see at least one chart or graph showing various economic indicators and their trendlines since, oh, maybe 2000 ?
Instead, we get a report that is actually about "what people think and say about the economy", which is potentially interesting, but isn't actually a story about the economy. Please do better, either with headlines or being on point.
10
For the left, the state of the current economy is good news, but only if Obama gets credit for it.
11
@one Nation under Law
The economy was humming along under Obama at the same or a little better clip than it is now. So why did Trump add $350 Billion in stimulus spending to an already "hot" economy? That is the same amount that Obama spent on the first year of his stimulus spending program that brought us out of the worst recession since 1929. What are we getting from all this Trump Trickle Down Tax Cuts and Military Spending, other than another $1 Trillion deeper in debt?
18
@Ronny
My recollection was that growth during the Obama years was about half that of what we are experiencing now and unemployment is now historically low levels.
@Ronny
Actually, the amount Obama ask for from Congress and received was in the area of 850 billion, a great deal of which went to things which were in no way stimulative. You say it was humming along at the same clip as now except gdp growth was around 2% under Obama in his last year and the most recent results show it growing in excess of 4% now.
This is a hollow victory for Trump and his enablers. If not for the economy started under the Obama Administration, what would the right have other than a hopelessly divided country, a disturbing trend toward scapegoating and away from tolerance, and a record of incompetence and endless scandals? And the rate at which Trump has undermined our institutions and allies is without equal in US history.
Worst President in US history.
37
I am fed up with both of these two, other politicians, and their cult like sycophants trying to claim credit for the so-called recovery.
Obama did stop the bleeding. He then proceeded to create millions of low paying short-term gigs. Trump had his "stimulus" in the form of his hideous tax cuts geared to the already filthy rich. It was double the size of Obama's stimulus, which was not nearly large enough.
Neither of these two ego maniacs have done squat to really help the American worker. If Obama was half as great as his supporters like to tout, Trump would not be President. Obama could have hand-picked his successor. Oh wait, he did. Blew that too.
The NYT will not allow the language I would like to use to describe my feelings about the thieving Trump. That is a good thing as a Christian should not be using that type of language.
Both Obama and Trump should keep it zipped up and shut up about the not so great economy they created. It's great if you live on a coast, are deep in the stock market, work in tech, or are a one percenter. Many of the rest of us are not impressed.
5
President Obama rarely gives public statements or interviews.
President Trump is a 24/7 twitter addict. Trump makes sure he is always the news. Obama often gave long, open press conferences. Trump has still not given one long open press conference.
One major distinction between both Presidents, is that Obama rarely lied to the American people. He rarely played golf. There was no constant whiff of scandal around Obama. No Obama officials were charged, let alone convicted of serious crimes. Obama did not treat allies like enemies, and enemies like friends.
The economy is but one measure of the success of a President. How is Trump going on the other measures that define the success of a President?
6
If you live on a coast right now you are under water or on fire, and the cost of living is skyrocketing. If you're not rich, you will soon be poor. Beam me up. To Canada.
6
@Concernicus Please! Enough of the false equivalence. Only one of these "ego maniacs" you speak of is running off his mouth touting his successes.
4
The economy is only truly strong for a shrinking segment of the population, and the future is not bright. The wealth gap is widening, the grifter/fat cats in the D.C. swamp are making a killing at the expense of everyone else, housing costs are skyrocketing in big cities and the homeless population is growing. We need a president who invests, not in a wall to keep out an imaginary foe, but in health care as promised and job training. Infrastructure would bring jobs, but Republicans are too busy passing tax cuts for the wealthy. Trump just plays golf and posts Twitter insults.
19
You're in San Francisco, which is proof that this country is in trouble. Montclair is going in the same direction. Whole cities that are only for the rich.
1
Obama was an ineffective President. The economic team around him was strong in getting the country out of the mess but he could never project the turnaround in a persuasive, strong message. As GOP presidential candidates started to fight each other for space, Trump lied and screamed his way through. Obama still believed that Hillary would walk all over Trump but his miscalculation was directly as a result of his self pumped ego of all things noble. Except, there is no nobility in politics.
5
President Obama was an effective president because he accomplished necessary steps; he simply took for granted that some things would speak for themselves, like how he turned things around from Bush's recession, or the importance of guaranteed comprehensive healthcare, or Hillary Clinton's superior qualifications over Donald Trump's. Perhaps that is too noble for politics, but it is far from a self-pumped ego, for which one need not look beyond Donald self-satisfied Trump.
14
@NM
Right on. And while "nobility" might be boorish in, say, a congressman, it ain't bad in a POTUS, especially when it's genuine.
All Democrats running for office should bring back the Ross Perot white board. Show the economic data slope--seeing is believing !
Get down, get down-to-earth, be matter-of-fact !
trump is known to be a showman, huckster, salesman who tries to sell hype & attitude.
He must be called out: "bragging doesn't make it true!"
11
I find this incessant competition for bragging rights as annoying as two kids arguing over whose dog is faster.
9
Every time President Obama achieved something great, Republicans refused to acknowledge it. Though Obama was modest to a fault, Republicans repeatedly accused him of taking "victory laps." He just gave up trying to highlight his achievements, because if he did, the GOP would just trash him all the more.
Now we have Trump who takes victory laps for things that he never achieved, or are outright lies and fabrications. And the WEB-based cheer and cheer.
The comparison is deeply disturbing on many levels, and it does not bode well for our nation.
76
@William O, Beema
And now, no matter what Trump does, the Democrats don’t give him credit. Welcome to the way the world works. Too bad really as I would value a little more bipartisan action.
2
So will Trump now take the credit for how the US is viewed by other nations?
4
All of us who voted for Hillary know the economic upturn was from President Obama. The only thing the GOP do are pollute the environment beyond repair and worsen the economy. It is fact in every GOP administration since 1945 there has been a major recession. Trumps is coming from a Wall Street report soon. I hope it hits hard and before mid terms and his supporters will reap what they sow. Make America Great Again sure they will it is Democrats who always have to fix it after a GOP nightmare rule.
11
@D.j.j.k., what about we Democrats of non-1% (or even non-10%) means who have invested wisely, so far, in the markets? I want Trump to be long gone, too, but your proposal also hurts many people on our side as well. Of course, Russian hacking could bring down our entire interconnected financial system with a click of a mouse and the only people who will be in any kind of shape are those with cash. (Suggestion: read James Patterson and Bill Clinton's novel, "The President Is Missing." The plot is fiction; the underlying facts are not.)
1
Trump is claiming credit for our economy after the swell started with Obama’s brilliant management. This hard work was done before Trump’s incompetence as a President became the standard of the day. The review of facts show that Trump’s economy is getting the benefit of the momentum created by Obama’s. If you separate the economy before Trump and after Trump, the numbers are less than Obama’s.
18
DENOTE MORDANT you're kidding, right?
2
From yesterday's Des Moines Register article, "Tariffs dominate discussions inside the Iowa State Fair's livestock barns":
"Farmers aren't buying extra machinery. They're not building new machine sheds. It's going to affect our local lumber dealer, our local equipment dealer, our local bank in our little town of 300 people. And the elevator where we're at," he said, adding that risks will grow the longer the tariffs last.
Vanderham, the Hillsboro dairy producer, said the fallout in the industry has hit "big operations and small operations."
"Our prices have been so low, dairies are closing up across the country," the third-generation producer said, adding he's cutting costs to continue operating.
_______
And while Trump didn't forget to draft "the forgotten men and women" of the Midwest to sacrifice and suffer on the front line of his unnecessary trade war, the so-called president tweets out the effluence of his affluence each morning from his golden throne before heading to his golf cart to putter the day away.
Please vote Democrat this November to help limit the damage done by Trump, the Great American Fraud (GAF).
83
To be more accurate, this article should at least mention the Federal Reserve's monetary policies of 0% interest rates and quantitative easing. Ben Bernanke cut interest rates to 0% and Janet Yellen maintained said policy long after the economy recovered.
In November 2008, Bernanke initiated a three phase bond buying program (QE) that concluded in October 2014 after the FED's balance sheet expanded by $4.5 Trillion.
These policies played a significant role in the economic recovery and "boom" we have today. Government fiscal policy helped, and would have helped more if President Obama had been able to follow Professor Krugman's advice to launch a larger stimulus package. President Trump seems to have no problem getting $Trillion / year deficits through Congress in a strong economy.
Unfortunately, the monetary policies mostly benefited the upper income classes through asset inflation, and both policies now have to be unwound. It remains to be seen who is impacted most by the unwinding.
7
Up to the last silly para, you were doing well. It's not just the false equivalence; it's that without quantitative easing, a lot of things would have crashed and burned.
2
Of course this is Obama's economy, in the same way that, a year and a half into Obama's administration, we were still suffering through Bush II's economy. Trump hasn't had time yet to create the Trump economy. It will be a disaster, obviously, and even his base will help vote in the Democrat that will fix it. This is the pattern ever since George H W Bush's economy was repaired by Clinton.
But for a taste of things to come, let's note taht Trump has already messed up two parts of the Obama economy he inherited. The stock market that was on an upward trajectory the last few years of Obama's Administration is schizoid, averaging at close to flat for the past half year, and wages, which were finally heading upward in 2016 in real terms are now declining in real terms.
31
You know, I too could turbo charge my bank account and spending if I ran up a massive credit card debt payable in the not-too-near future and likely by the next generation. That's exactly what Trump and the GOP did here.
52
Americans are not generally well informed or well read people....and they have remarkably short memories.
Many Americans forget - or are too ill-informed or thought-challenged to realize - that the Bush-Cheney 2008 Great Depression and Republican economic malpractice of the highest order - was the cause of the sluggish 2009 - 2013 years that dominated the first Obama term.
Many Americans are simply too racist and spiteful to admit that Obama and the Democratic Party and higher taxes saved America from Republican economic trickle-down, deregulatory, Snake Oil hell.
Anyone with an appreciation for context and history knows Donald Trump and the Reverse Robin Hood Party are surfing the fumes of the Obama Recovery and that it's only a matter of time before 1% Tax Cut Strychnine, record income inequality, Deregulatory Derangement Syndrome, Trade Tariff Tourette Syndrome and right-wing refusal to invest in the national infrastructure tear the American economy to shreds.
So let the right wing gloat about the incredible economic wonders of Trump Snake Oil all they want.
Educated, informed people know that that this right-wing Randian poison pie will explode in the oven just like the last Republican economic masterpiece.
Americans like to learn the hard way....through manmade Republican catastrophes, Birther Lies and good old-fashioned cultured stupidity.
D to go forward; R for intellectual, moral and economic bankruptcy.
November 6 2018
205
@Socrates.
The most ignorant president in history doesn’t have a nuanced understanding or probably any understanding of how the economy has evolved since the Bush Cheney Era and through the Obama corrections. He somehow muddles through, protected by a Republican Consgress, all the while being offensive and egotistical and obnoxious.
Hope next November is the beginning of his end. He’s out of his depth and out of his league and doesn’t even realize it.
3
Or those of us with even better memories not corrupted by partisanship will remember that is was a Democrat (Clinton) who repealed Glass-Steagall. Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of being too cozy with Wall Street and cultivating a culture of corruption and deregulation.
Sanders 2020
2
Sadly, as a democrat takes office in 2020, they'll face worse economic hurdles than Obama.
3
The economy is the same: what's happened is that there is no longer a political party, and a TV and radio network, and affiliated broadcasters, badmouthing the economy as they did after Obama won election.
For a select group of Trumpsters and Fox News listeners, they heard nothing but bad news and blame for eight years, and then, with the same economy, the news is, well, Trump-style superlative.
So sure, for those people, it sure SEEMS like everything turned around the moment Trump was elected, when it was only the coverage afforded him by right wing outlets.
51
Yes. And the Cold War was won by policies that Carter established! When will people realize that Reagan had nothing to do with it?
10
@Kevin. Why aren’t you giving George HW Bush all the credit for winning the Cold War?
The Berlin Wall and Soviet Union fell while he was president, not Reagan.
Could it be that we all know how silly it is to credit a president for the good policies of his predecessors that come to fruition during his term?
1
Can you give me some articles about that? I know a little about Carter and the Cold War but I would like to know more.
If there are no tangible negative consequences for lying or supporting lies, why would Trump and his true believers change a thing?
So far, throughout his life, Trump has been rewarded for lying far more then he's been punished. Being called out for abhorrent behavior only seems to feed and enlarge his ego/image.
As has been noted often - the things people use to try and hurt him only seem to make him stronger. What then to do?
Voters will have an opportunity to clearly define consequences this November - the result will give us a better understanding of the priorities and effectiveness of any functional "resistance" to this lie-abiding presidency.
Here's hoping it's not business (as usual)...
17
During the economic Depression that began in the Bush administration and $4 a gallon gas, Bush could not have cared less.
When I thought we couldn't get a lousier president Obama was elected. I take part of the blame also, I voted for Obama for his first term.
During the entire Obama administration business never got better. Unemployment in parts of the US was as high as 25%. During Obama's first term he blamed the economic mess on Bush.
Obama never had a job or ran a business. He has no concept of business or economics. Obama is a good talker and community activist that stumbled into the presidency like Chauncey Gardener in Peter Seller's movie "Being There". Except Obama was a financial disaster.
The day Trump was elected it was like the power was turned on again. People had confidence in the economy again and in Trump. This editorial is senseless and is only more Trump bashing, big on emotion with none or little fact.
9
@mrmeat: The Great Recession started in 2007. Who else should take the blame?
2
@mrmeat
"During the entire Obama administration business never got better."
Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression and he got us out of it. Ask Detroit how the auto business is going, they're still *in* business thanks to Obama.
"During Obama's first term he blamed the economic mess on Bush."
Rightly so, he spent a lot of his presidency fixing the disasters that were brought on by Republican governance.
"The day Trump was elected it was like the power was turned on again. People had confidence in the economy again and in Trump."
Nonsense.
"Obama is a good talker and community activist that stumbled into the presidency"
Oh yeah, right - 'Whoopsie- I accidentally got elected president, it's not like I won the primary and then the general election or anything!'
5
@mrmeat
You're dreaming. Obama never blamed the recession on Bush. That's the hallmark of a classy guy--roll up your sleeves, don't blame people, and fix the problem. And, Obama did.
Go find yourself a GDP growth curve and study it. The internet is a wondrous thing: full of data.
I don't care if you want to think Trump is some great businessman, but the numbers are out there. Don't make a fool out of yourself.
6
The graph would seem to indicate that not much has changed regarding Democratic views of the economy since before and after the 2016 election. There's a bit of up and down, which doesn't seem unexpected and is likely more realistic. The change is that Republicans are embracing the same conditions they disparaged when it was during Obama's presidency.
6
Wrong. It began with Hamilton with bumps along the way and will continue, some with a better sense of it than others. What matters, growth in GDP and the numbers of citizens who enjoy that growth.
But about the only thing that can be said about the pre-Trump years is that Obama, in sum, was a drag creator in politics and economy, especially the last four. First four were all Bernanke.
3
@Alice's Restaurant
Try looking at a GDP growth chart some time. You might learn something.
11
I seem to recall that the Declaration and Constitution talked quite a bit about liberty and freedom, and pretty much skipped the GDP. I also seem to recall that from Smith and Ricardo (and Hamilton) on, capitalism was a means to an end in service of humanity, not a little tin god to bow down before.
4
Just as President Bonespur has made it his presidential mission to erase everything Obama accomplished, I'm sure crushing Obama's economic recovery is also on his to-do list. This one's a little more resilient, but he'll make it disappear, too.
15
Apparently this president didn't inherit "a mess" after all. Thanks to President Obama, his successor can boast, albeit falsely, that he is responsible for the country's economic recovery. There's no doubt that had the current president succeeded George Bush as president, he would have been bequeath an awful burden. This president has a gift for taking credit done by others while assigning blame for his failures on everyone else.
21
How funny, my friend, that we both thought back to the same quote when we read this! How funny, too, that yesterday, my iPad turned "Trump" into "Trust," especially considering that it knows me well and suggests "Trump" for every second word! ;)
3
@NM -- and I "scolded" you for putting trust and the president in the same sentence...shame on you ;)...yes, we are both on the same wavelength...a great post by you!
He's piggybacking on Barack
This dimwit who has complete lack
Of basic economics
Only reads the comics
In reality a sad sack.
A trade war may make this all clear
His total ignorance never fear
Knows not what he's doing
His mess we'll be ruing
His brain may be prt of his rear.
111
@Larry Eisenberg
Bravo, Larry
2
@Larry Eisenberg
It's your best ever, sir.
2
Larry - one of your very best!
1
And now when Dems get control again and Trumponomics starts to be exposed, the Dems will get blamed for the negative impact. The Dems will once again have to fix bad fiscal policies that have been rushed through by the GOP in order to enrich themselves. They all need to be voted out for lack of fiduciary duty to the US citizens and our economic well being.
63
"“Americans may give little credit to a president not of their own party.”...
It is not just the economy but, immigration, crime, foreign policy, and the environment. Americans give little credit to the "other party" for anything while blaming them for everything. I get weekly mail (letters, oversized postcards, and flyers from politicians of all sorts claiming credit for everything and, at the same time, nothing (as I can't figure out what specific vagary they are promoting) as if elections were to be held tomorrow.
In the end, elections have consequences and the winners have the soapbox to take credit as they choose until the next round of voting. And, so it seems, the election "season" goes on forever. Meanwhile, we wonder why we can't work together, share ideas, and compromise for the good of the country.
6
@Charles
Another both sides do it argument completely devoid of facts and ignoring reality. I really hope you don't vote.
2
In which universe is a man who has gone bankrupt multiple times and left others financially devastated considered a 'great business man'. He's a snake oil salesman and leaves destruction in his wake. We will be paying a terrible price for this experiment.
198
It continues to go largely unnoticed that Trump's investors removed him from management in the early 90s after he ran the company $4B into the hole, with another $900M in personal debt. (see "Trump Went Broke, But Stayed on Top," Washington Post, 1992)
Those investors who owned him chose NOT to ruin him because he had an army of lawyers who threatened to deepen their losses in a drawn out court battle, and because they were well aware that nobody could sell the Trump brand like he can.
From that point on, that's all he has done -- peddle "T-R-U-M-P" this and T-R-U-M-P that.
And as we have now witnessed from his constant campaigning and lack of preparedness, planning and policy, we now know selling T-R-U-M-P is all he can do.
5
Oh why can't we have a Robespierre or Lenin who will make our leaders pay the price for once? Look at Cheney and Rumsfeld, who got away with war crimes. People are executed for less. Even the English hanged the Nazis.
3
@AMM
Yep, pretty likely.
Difference here is he can't, ironically, escape the truth. There are too many bean counters. There are too many real (ironically) world measures. So maybe we can appeal to his replete pychopathy and cajole the salvation of the republic out of his need to "win".
1
There is a big difference in the way the media covers the economy under Obama’s and Trump.
Under Obama’s, economic good news was treated as detached from Obama himself: if the market was up or employment gains large, Obama was not mentioned, nor did he claim credit.
With Trump, good news is attached to his name by both the media and Trump himself.
11
@Broken What a propaganda! How economy can grow in one year and a half???? It is shame that the New York Times provides this information. Trump did not do anything and all his sanctions can not be effective in short period of time. Economy started grow under Obama and has usual ups and downs. Wait.... Let see what will happen to economy and health care in next 10 years. Health care is already broken!
Of course Trump takes credit for all the work his predecessor did.
Rule One of the Trump Playbook:
- Credit for Everything, Blame for Nothing. (and let other people break a sweat.)
68
It seems patently unfair, but most of the policies and views of this administration are too.
Of all the presidents to follow President Obama, we get this one, and not entirely due to his own effort. In fact, I'm rather amazed that with all this chaos and his tariffs, that the economy has been seemingly immune to their effects.
Of course, you cannot simply run up a deficit like he has and escape it all together. Sooner or later, there will be hell to pay--not that the president, in office or not, will ever admit it.
48
@ChristineMcM
Really? Obama ran up the largest deficit in The history of the world. Has he paid for it?
Small wonder that Trump began his presidency by whining, "I inherited a mess." Of course it was patently false, but that never stopped Donald. What Trump did was give himself a pass to praise himself if conditions were good, or to wash his hands of problems. Naturally for Trump, he also put President Obama in a no-win situation.
63
@NM
I’d forgotten about the blatant lie “I inherited a mess”.
Smart take on Trump’s strategy to give himself a pass and benefit from any upside or wash his hands off.
I’m glad you saw that in my response :)
3
Trump's nature is to take credit for things he had little to do with but turned out great and point the finger when anything goes sour.
Obama inherited the worst economic downturn in recent history, worked with Congress, cobbled together a bailout...( good for the banks, bad for Joe Six Pack) . The markets rebounded, production increased, wages remained stagnant...and our economy, is, for now humming along.
But, there is some degree of concern for possible problems ahead. The bond markets, for one, are over leveraged, and while unemployment is down to record levels wages have not kept up. At the same time as Trump presided over a tax cut for the rich, he doesn't spent a dime on infrastructure. My guess is that when the next downturn occurs the Treasury will need to invest in infrastructure to put people to work.
There will be nothing glamorous about it...just basic work for decent pay rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Bridges and road and freeways.No border wall contractors need apply. Trump will be long gone by then. Back in NYC trying to get a loan from the Bank of Russia... if he isn't in a Super Max prision somewhere.
157
@Harley Leiber/ I tell you what, you let fear of Trump's policies dictate your investment decisions. I went full in when Trump was elected and did very well. let's see what the Mid-terms bring, I'm guessing you're rooting for tax increases, more regulation, and free college & free healthcare.
5
@Harley Leiber Generally with you on this. I read some of the backstories at the time on the decision making. Decisiveness was needed. To add on, though,the latest BLS data shows wages fell over the last 12 months. What is the legislation brought forward by the current administration that adds to what was already in motion? The article attributes the cheery view to salesmanship and perception riding what was well into motion.
3
@Phil Bickel
" I'm guessing you're rooting for tax increases, more regulation, and free college & free healthcare. "
The *majority of the country* is in favor of those things (those tax increases will be for *the rich*, by the way), Philly - and they'll be voting for those things very soon. Enjoy the Trump presidency, it's gonna be a short ride.