should be an interesting October.
I mean this should come as no surprise. It happens all the time, Obama inherited the Bush economy and everyone was blaming him.
These changes don't tend to happen overnight and it's sad that most Americans are simply "reactive" anymore as opposed to "reflective".
This political smoke screen and mirrors tactic is probably used by every politician.
Wouldn't it be such a victory if we were to have honesty in our politics?
9
The bottom line is that small businesses are the driver of our economy. The Small Business Optimism Index is at its second highest level since its high point in 1983.
Small business optimism leads to job creation, borrowing and investment. These have all increased significantly since Trump took office. Trump's 20% deduction for small businesses will be another boon.
Small business owners clearly know they've got a champion in the White House now. Obama was just never this serious about helping them. His priorities were elsewhere.
3
Almost 8million jobs combined from two very dissimilar administrations, but how many of them pay even 12 bucks an hour?
3
When the deficit balloons to trillions of dollars, and the national debt blows sky high, who is going to pay for it? Not Mr. Trump, you can bet on that.
6
"The difference, she [Christina D. Romer, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who headed Mr. Obama’s council of advisers] said, was that Mr. Obama’s stimulus was undertaken when the economy needed it, while Mr. Trump’s tax cut was not needed in an already growing economy."
It should be noted that JFK instituted a tax cut to stimulate the economy.
An economist should know to not look at averages as well as the fact that unemployment statistics from the government tend not to state all of unemployment.
What we do know is the employment in much of the middle part of the country is lower than the coasts.
That people are underemployed.
That if the unemployment rate was really as low as the government quotes, then wages should be rising, which they don't appear to be among the working class, particularly in non-coastal states America.
I would suggest that Prof. Romer visit unemployed and underemployed families in middle America and speak with the mothers and fathers and ask if Trump's tax cut stimulus wasn't needed.
5
Trump taking credit for something he didn’t do isn’t news.
Next.
8
@NYLAkid
Sounds suspiciously like another of those Obama comments that will come back to bite him: "You didn't build that!"
1
Without a doubt the economy is doing quite well today, but what was not mentioned was the role of Republican obstructionism leading to November, 2016. For all 8 years of the Obama administration Republicans had their foot on the recovery brake. Republicans opposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that began the recovery, opposed to plans to save the auto industry and prevent financial collapse, while resurrecting fear of deficits and threating to (and in 2013 accomplishing) shutting down the Federal Government. Republicans were not working to end the recession; they were hobbling the recovery to make it easier for Republicans to return to power. Unfortunately the strategy worked.
Now that Republicans are back in power the foot is finally off the brake and on the accelerator, so it is no surprise that the economy is doing quite well. With admittedly strong growth and lowest unemployment in a generation we should be reducing the deficit, if not reducing the debt (remember Bill Clinton?), to get our financial house back in order after the recession. But Republicans are doing the opposite, passing a massive tax cut and increased spending that is raising deficits towards a Trillion dollars per year. When the boom eventually ends, which it always does, we’ll already have a huge deficit as a future Democratic administration tries to dig out of another Republican downturn.
16
Please define inflection point, Mr. Kudlow.
2
When Obama was apologizing for our country around the world for 8 years, George Bush remained mute and properly so. Obama is less of a man than Bush. (not surprising) He couldn't manage to keep his trap shut. History will so record. Shame on Obama.
2
As I recall correctly, and I do, it was W. Bush who had to apologize to the Chinese government when they took our spy boat, lest they woulnd not return the sailors...and he DID apologize profusely. Bad right-wing memory or lack of deceny?
6
Repeating false things doesn’t make them true - that, at least, is what the Trump Administration has taught us. Of course, fake news is all Trump has - so there you go.
2
“...less of a man”?
*Eye roll.*
6
Mr. President Obama, you were the one who stopped us from going into another depression. End of story!
10
While it is rather pathetic that Obama is crowing about a booming economy he had zero to do with it does illustrate that the economy is in fact booming. The "progressive" media has been making every effort to obscure that fact.
2
Trump would take credit for the sun rising in the morning. He has no shame.
I'd like to think anyone with half a brain understands Obama's contribution to where the economy is now, and that while the tax cut may have added more strength (not that this was needed, at the cost it's going to come with for the 99% down the road), the job numbers were about the same before and after Trump took office. Trumps actions didn't make things that much better, nor worse, than what Obama left him with.
Of course, it seems the majority of Trump's supporters lack this qualification, and believe him when he shouts from the rooftop "It was all me!!!"
I fear for this country if it turns out greater than half of voters are such suckers.
13
Republicans minus Trump is the winning formula for Republicans. Since the polls clearly suggest that touting economy is finding some traction. So, Obama is on campaign trail to remove some of the shine on the economic growth Trump taking credit for. Secondly, if Obama attacks Trump more aggressively, Trump makes tweets or comments that would cover front pages instead of the economy. Irrespective who gets the credit for the economy, the winning mantra for Democrats is keep Trump on front pages and glued to Republicans. Republican Party is Trump and Trump is Republican Party.
2
So, Obama wants to take credit for the employment & economic numbers he said were unattainable?
Shocking.
4
Trump's deregulation has probably made a difference as well. But like the tax cuts, this is storing up future problems. When climate change starts to wreak havoc and the US can't spend money to fix it because of the out of control deficit, people will be very angry, and Trump will be long gone.
10
INFLATION. The average "Joe" does not have inflation on his mind these days. My retired in-laws thought they were really savvy investors when they got an 11% CD back in the days of "St. Ronnie". They had no understanding of inflation. My father-in-law talked for the remainder of his life about that 11% CD. He had no idea how hard it was for us to buy a house when when mortgage rates were 12%. The Trump economy may look good to folks who recently got a raise but they don't appreciate that their raise is probably less than the rate of inflation.
9
President Trump and the Republican majority have made considerable changes in laws, with the Administration cutting regulations in all sectors. This makes is less costly to hire people, reduces costs and allows corporations to do more of what they please with lesser government interference. That explains the buoyant Stock Market. In essence, that is easy to do. President Obama sought to level the playing field with employment, overtime, air quality, and food safety. He sought healthcare for all. There were lots of mandates. It's costly, it can cause harm to profits to a degree, BUT IT WAS FAIR for all Americans.
14
I remember when trump claimed the low unemployment rate under Obama was faked and was probably more like 25%, 27%, 30% (all numbers picked out of his nether regions).
Now, this six-time bankruptcy filer and multiple business failure wants us to believe the numbers.
Sorry, trump, some of us have excellent memories (and audio and videotapes).
12
Never mind that Trump succeeded in bringing out the worst of what's wrong with America; but his mix of lying, bragging, cock-and-bull stories, and chest-thumping has drawn out the worst of what people think of New York.
10
An unjustified tax cut is the biggest cheap shot to fein a boost in the economy. Once we have finished playing our last card in the deck what will be left? Sustained growth, like Obama gave us, doesn't look heroic, but is the right foundation on which the economy should rest on. I've seen enough bubbles and pops in my life.
15
Should this get published, I'll probably get blasted, but here goes.
Obama does get credit for the current economy, and at least for the moment, trump hasn't sunk it... his tariffs have not taken full effect and the 1.5 trillion added debt his unnecessary tax cut will bring hasn't either. That bill will come due later.
My only fault with Obama was that he did not exact any real penalties or pain on the folks/banks who brought about the near collapse of our economy - a collapse that reverberated throughout the world - causing untold harm to hundreds of millions. Many of whom have never been and never will be made whole again.
While I understand the reasoning of his prioritizing mitigation of the damage, and that he was a new president under the influence of Geithner, Summers, Paulson and others deeply connected to Wall St./banks, it was a mistake to let them collect their bonuses and bail outs while regular people lost everything.
I believe that is why so many former Obama/democrat voters turned their backs on Clinton. Much was made of the undisclosed subjects of her speeches to and connections to these same banks, for which she was paid very handsomely.
The lingering anger, rage, resentment, and desire for payback is what put trump in the White House. People in this emotional state do not make rational decisions and wind up hurting themselves more, just out of spite.
And here we are, all of us, living with the consequence.
13
@Deb I agree that not holding anyone on Wall Street accountable was a huge mistake. I also believe that not helping average homeowners was wrong.
10
I agree with you--and Elizabeth Warren, who was for your points, precisely when the financial services executives didn't pay a price for the behavior.
However, the Democrats only bear some of the blame for the last presidential election. The Republicans who had SO many better candidates bear the most responsibility for not making certain to give someone else the nomination.
3
If the economy were in tatters, people would gleefully assign 100% of the blame to Trump. This is the left scrambling to discredit a profound achievement of the Trump Administration.
Obama should show more class and leave this alone.
5
Obama should show class? Are you kidding? No one's less classy than trump and that's putting it mildly. Classless is more the word.
Sorry, but trump, the six-time bankruptcy filer, was handed this increasingly improving economy.
Suddenly, unemployment numbers are to be believed. But when Obama was president trump claimed they were faked and unemployment was probably 25%, 27%, 30%.
Now they are to be believed.
And you don't see a pattern with trump and his claims here?
6
Trump would do well to show more class every time he tweets or opens his mouth. He is an embarrassment of global proportions - that from someone watching his disastrous presidency from overseas. Not that we are much better in Australia. RWNJs are all tarred with the same brush.
9
Wine Country Dude,
Napa Valley and other wine regions are getting too hot, and too much in the paths of literal fire storms burning much of California. With Climate change being real, but exacerbated by dumb moves by Trump, your precious Napa Valley reputation will be moving north to other places that soon will replace Napa at this rate.
Washington already is producing, by and large, MANY of the best Bordeaux style wines in USA, and Oregon already produces by and large the best pinots in USA.
More methane releases, please, Trumps says. More coal....There goes your climate and neighborhood eventually.
8
A common misconception is that the Obama recovery was slow compared to other recessions. This is the wrong analytical frame. The correct comparison is against combined recession/financial crises, which have an important household and banking debt component.
Until those entities pay down their debts (“deleverage”) the economy suffers.
Compared against such incidents in the 20th century around the globe, our recovery was faster (about 5 years to regain pre-crisis employment level vs. 7 years).
From 2000-2007, U.S. households increased their debt (mortgage, credit card, and auto) by $7.6 trillion in an unprecedented debt binge. This borrowing and spending boosted the economy. In contrast, from Q4 2008 to Q2 2012, households paid down their debts by $900 billion. This was the first time since at least the 1950’s when households did this.
Even the deep Reagan recession of 1981-1982 and the jobless recovery of the Bush 43 era (total jobs did not regain the February 2001 level until January 2005) did not have to wait for households and banks to pay off their debts before the economy could recover.
In addition, spending for fiscal years 2009-2014 was kept flat at $3.5 trillion, as opposed to rising at the historical average of about 5% a year. This meant spending was falling as % GDP, creating headwinds to the recovery of about 0.4% GDP each period. If Republicans want credit for holding spending down, they also get credit for slowing the economy.
10
@David Doney
Correction: Our recovery to pre-crisis employment levels took about 6.5 years (not 5), a bit better than comparable crises.
Here is a nice graph of those comparable recoveries:
https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/06/employment-recovery-great-rec...
Further, economists Reinhardt and Rogoff estimated that recoveries from such crises require about 7 years, using other measures, as covered in the NYT in 2014: "Study Suggests Recovery in U.S. Is Relatively Vital"
1
@David Doney There is the additional point that private employment recovered just as fast as it had under GWB after the dot.com crash, the difference in rate of employment recovery was driven by Government employment declines after the GFC.
Trump has been great for business. Just ask all of the companies that 45 has continually bashed on Twitter- Harley Davidson, Amazon, Boeing, etc. if this president is good for business. Add the effect of the tariffs on a myriad of industries and agriculture, and boy, Trump is great for the country (sarcasm). Can't wait to pay my share of the trillion dollar tax cut! (cue more sarcasm). Par for the course to take credit for everything. Everyone who thinks the tax cuts are driving a recovery by creating more jobs, think again. Companies are instituting share repurchase programs.
13
Good pun, Sally. "Par for the course" as description of the golf cheating prez.
2
If it were possible Donald Trump would take personal credit for the first moon walk or for any other accomplishment that resulted in high praise and accolades.
But he is the most adept, aside from lying, at placing blame for anything shameful, deplorable or damaging on others. Cowardly behavior as always and forever.
I am very thankful for the 'tick-tock' sign held high in front of the White House and can't wait for his days there to be over.
12
Besides the coal miners and associated ancillary services, the biggest group hurt most by Obama's ill conceived economic policies were college graduated in the 2009 - 2015 time frames. They graduated, many with crushing debt, with no job prospects. Obama's jackboot caused economic misery for tens of millions.
3
Any President who claims to be the sole reason for a good economy is a liar and a fool. Macro-economic trends in today's world are influenced by many factors----most of which Donald Trump does not understand or acknowledge. However, this narcissistic sociopath always takes complete credit for anything good and placed blame on others for every bad thing in life. This is just one more in a long list of reminders that we have elected one of the most willfully ignorant Presidents in our nation's history.
7
The Economy is completely a result of President Obama. I cannot say anything else because that is the truth! Plain and simple. Anyone at all involved will know that it takes 8 years of intelligent legislative initiative to put forth an economy like the one we now have. By a president who is also a Harvard scholar and not an NYC street hack, racist like Mr. Trump. Reflect for a moment and ask yourself the question. Who is responsible for our economic recovery. The past year and a half of Trumpism?
Or the past two years of President Obama's work?
7
The economy was performing very well when Obama left office, after a difficult job of restarting the economy during the near depression of 2008.
Any additional stimulus from the present administration is a result of mortgaging our future due to unnecessary tax cuts, eliminating pollution and bank regulations and increasing the national debt.
8
Anyone with a a memory knows it is not just Trump's economy. The data is there to show the recovery was strong when Trump took the White House. But When you listen to FOX NOISE and listen to all the Professional Conservatives Blogger and Bots if you ignorant or have a terrible memory you believe them. Trump and the Koch's boys great accomplished it the Triumph of Fake News and right wing propaganda over reason in the United States.
9
I liked President Obama, but I don’t think he deserves much credit for our current roaring economy.
Low GDP growth and slow job creation were so much a feature of his terms that economists and journalists (many writing for this publication) talked about a “jobless recovery” and a “new normal” of sub-2% GDP growth.
The current boom is Trump-driven. Businesses committed to hiring and investment when they saw tax cuts and less regulation on the horizon.
The stock market boomed, beginning, literally, a few minutes after it became apparent on election night that Trump had won. Futures sank for a few minutes on the news, then turned up and didn’t stop.
More people working, plus bigger balances in investment and retirement accounts, equal prosperity, driven by the policies of our current President.
8
The economy is on the same trajectory it has been on since Obama left office. Heading upwards.
Trump hasn’t even created as many jobs in his whole term that Obama created in the same timeframe at the end of his term.
The gains in the stock market reflect the benefits of tax cuts—for the rich. Companies are paying bonuses to their C suite and buying back stock. Not creating massive numbers of jobs.
3
@MR Not that it's of any concern to Trump of his supporters, but the facts don't actually support most of your assertions.
2
@MR I guess you are forgetting the market crash in 2008 and all of the measures taken by the Obama administration to address the problems that caused it - i.e. all republican-made ones. The market did not "boom" "literally in a few minutes". You really have a poor memory.
8
With the exception of the Fed's monetary policy (quantitative easing, e.g.), and the President's ability to appoint a Fed Chairman and FRB Board of Governors, can someone explain to me how a president substantially impacts the economy in any concrete way while president?
@Clint
A $780 billion stimulus.
1
@Clint
For starters:
Fiscal policy
Regulatory environment
Trade agreements
and so on ...
1
@Clint Putting the country 1 trillion into debt when we were actually lowering our deficits helps. Trump is using Keynesian economics. Unfortunately Keynes economics of spending was to fight recession and a drastic response to serious economic depression. not to the push 1/2% off the unemployment rate in growing and improving economy.
2
As usual, Trump, who was born on third base, thinks he hit a home run. Metaphorically speaking, the economy had made it to third base when Trump took office. He started doing a victory dance even before his inauguration. And in all likelihood, his tax cuts, which have delivered a bump in growth, will result in unsustainable debt… and another round of economy-killing austerity.
It seems like most of our recessions are preceded by a period of unrealistic optimism about the strength of the economy. Is this going to be another episode of Trump squandering an advantage, like he did in Atlantic City before declaring bankruptcy several times over? I’ll bet he did a victory dance when he opened his garish casinos in Atlantic City. That didn’t end well, unless you think his turning to the Russians for financing was a good thing. Maybe he plans to turn America into one giant money laundering operation. If that’s the case, you’ve got to hand it to Obama… he did it the old fashioned way… he earned it.
6
All I know is that America was losing 700k jobs each and every month. Trump got a ride on a rocket, and thinks he’s responsible for liftoff.
5
@lansford "losing 700K jobs every month"? which months are you referring to? I guess you don't remember the 200,000+ jobs added every month once Obama fixed the mess that he inherited from the republicans.
3
How could we forget the mess the GOP created and left for Obama to clean up. It took him seven years, but he together with Janet Yellen got us on the right track. Obama always said it would take time to completely recover. Now Trump is trying to take the credit.
14
I don't have a degree in economics but I couldn't agree more with Professor Gregory Mankiw. The current administration claiming success for our bustling economy is just smoke and mirrors. It will come to a tipping point in the future which may or may not be in the President's control. Trade wars, inflation, the deficit or the spiraling costs of health care in relation to GDP.
6
The economy is humming along though there is evidence it’s now stagnating. In any case, it was the Obama Administration that oversaw the recovery from the recession of 2008 (and that thanks to Bush #2). Trump consistently touts the rise of the stock market under his watch. Let’s be clear: the stock market is NOT the economy, and the market doesn’t necessarily benefit Trump’s base.
10
It's a truism that presidents get more credit than they deserve when the economy does well, and more blame than they deserve when it does poorly. At nearly two years in, Trump gets bragging rights. If you want to argue that it goes back to Obama then you can also argue that it goes back to Bush since Obama simply continued the policies started by Bush. And if you go back to Bush, you can also go back to Clinton and argue that it was his policies that lead to the Great Recession. At some point, you have to stop and say the guy there now gets the credit or blame deserved or not. We're at that point.
2
In related news: Trump Falsely Claims G.D.P. Growth Is Higher Than Unemployment ‘for the First Time in 100 Years’
But you need to understand that Trump lies at a rate of about 20 times that of past presidents. So he was merely making this claim in lie-years, which, in same way there are 7 dog-years per Earth-year, *currently* there are 20 lie-years per Earth-year.
So Trump is really claiming that this is the first time in 100 lie-years (so about 5 Earth-years), which ironically enough, is not a lie, and as such, was likely not his intent.
4
Hopefully Obama will be the voice for the Democratic Party. It is sorely needed. He can in a few brief phrases frame the issues so that anyone can understand. He commands all our respect based on the dignity with which he conducted himself as President of our great nation. He understands our place in history. He may not have solved all our problems during his time, but he has great empathy for those who still suffer the bad decisions that he inherited. He is someone that the idealistic next generation wants to hear.
7
Barack Obama was the most Anti-American president the US has ever known. "You didn't build that," always sided against the cops, did nothing for the vets, would not even utter the phrase Radical Islam. It is so nice to see a President that actually loves America, loves the vets and just got them a better deal, he's getting America better trade deals, Tax cuts for everyone, bigger paychecks, Lowest jobless claims in recent history, 4% GDP! A more peaceful North Korea. Trump really turned things around not Obama. If you recall right in the middle of the great recession Obama shoved the biggest tax increase in history down America's throats called Obama care and scratched his head and wondered why the economy wasn't recovering. If you like your plan you can keep your plan remember?
5
“Watching @BarackObama take credit for @realDonaldTrump successes is disgraceful.”
No, watching @realDonaldTrump take credit for @BarackObama successes is disgraceful. Everything about @realDonaldTrump is disgraceful.
18
Obama's pathetic economy grew at less than 2% per year while adding $10 trillion to our national debt. Wages were stagnant for the entire 8 years of his presidency. Health care insurance premiums more than doubled after 2009. The number of people on food stamps, not the stock market, hit record highs under his watch. What exactly is he taking credit for?
6
You can thank Republicans for the slow recovery. They halved the stimulus Obama wanted and instead gave us tax cuts that only helped the rich. Thank God we had Pres Obama to get the small bit of stimulus we got or we wouldn’t have a US auto industry today, nor would we have a recovery.
9
So the guy who had one of the worst post recession recoveries in history is now taking credit for the best?
8
Go figure
2
@JungleCogs
No, the guy who actually presided over a recovery is taking credit. And so is the guy who took office when that recovery was very far along.
8
@NA
The slowest recovery in history, the economy recovered despite Obama's every attempt to prevent recovery. If Obama did nothing the economy would have recovered faster, but no Obama thought it was the perfect time to declare war on politically incorrect industries.
There is nothing unusual about Donald Trump trying to take sole credit for something he basically inherited.
After all, that's what having a lietime of white privilege does to you -- not to mention the fact that Trump always goes out of his way to demean and discredit the accomplishments of his predecessor when and wherever possible.
And no matter what the numbers say, most of those Americans who voted for him have yet to realize all those jobs aren't coming back -- and if they do, the vast majority of them won't have the qualifications to fill them.
Meanwhile, they'll still continue to get hit with those taxes, so the wealthy continue to grow wealthier, as their savings and health decline without the vaguest hope of getting any public assistance.
And all that's before the full weight of those new tariffs kick in, driving up consumer prices.
At this point, the only thing that's growing is the national debt.
And that's not going to make us great again.
Wake-up, AMERICA.
18
Regardless of what can be cited by job counts, my take-home pay shrank as a result of the ACA. My personal spending decreased as a result - and there was little to no benefit to me (warm fuzzies about other people having better coverage subsidized by me just did not encourage a lot of discretionary spending by me!)
4
I keep hearing about this “booming economy;” can anyone tell me where it is?
I see Obama hanging with billionaire Richard Branson on his private island. There’s Obama with billionaire David Geffen on his superyacht. Oh Bruce Springsteen (net worth $460 million) is at a party with the Obamas. Springsteen’s daughter has two horses and rides with Bill and Melinda Gates’ daughter.
So through the eyes of the Trump family and the Obama family ($1.2 mill for 3 speeches on Wall Street and a $65 million advance on a book deal) the economy is REALLY booming! Amazon and Apple are the first privately owned trillion dollar businesses.
But I’m 70 years old and never recovered from the Severe Recession of ten years ago. Many folks, a majority who are black had their homes foreclosed and will never recover.
When my spouse and I both lost our jobs along with millions of other folks we found out that no one was interested in hiring 60 year olds. What was the use of experience and advanced degrees when you could hire people in their 20s who didn’t care if they got benefits like health care or contributions to an IRA? We became expendable.
Our stock portfolio and savings were nearly gone thanks to instruments called credit default swaps...fancy name for gambling with our money.
How IRONIC that our taxes bailed out Wall Street who turned around and gave $1.2 mill to Obama for speeches!
My spouse completed suicide in 2009 and I’m stuck w/o much money.
So GLAD the economy is GREAT!
2
@Nuschler The economy is booming for wealthy people across the land. That's what the tax cutes were all about. It is likely the reason Trump was put in office by the Rs. Same as Bush.
And all those tax cuts that republicans insist are going to translate into higher wages for workers - baloney. Under all three R tax cuts - Reagan, Bush and Trump - companies took all that tax cut money and bought back their own shares to drive the book value of their companies up. Each time. None of it went to workers. It's about rich people taking care of rich people and poor people getting poorer. This is America today.
America is and really always has been for the wealthy, by the wealthy and of the wealthy.
Sorry about the wife.
11
@Nuschler. Sorry about the suicide. But why on earth were you gambling your retirement savings on credit default swaps? I'm also 70. My retirement "index fund" took a big hit 10 years ago but it recovered before President Obama left office and we can retire in comfort unless the market tanks more severely than before.
2
What about all those “under-employed” that Trump was railing about during his election campaign. From him, I’ve heard crickets. He should be judged by those numbers that he put out there himself.
5
I don't know where to begin a conversation with people of what’s now the Far Right who care so little about the fiscal future of America and our children's future that they would vote for Trump. Are they so full of hate that they mindlessly assume that change – ANY change - would be good, that "shaking things up" is an action guaranteed to yield beneficial results? Is that what the Far Right thinks a rational action looks like? Seriously?
5
Trump bragging? Quelle surprise! If you need to rush and get an Alka-Seltzer you haven't been paying enough attention. Trump is an old-fashioned windbag, and the pinnacle of crying wolf, more fool anyone who believes him, ever.
9
I’m a democrat, I dislike trump, and would gladly vote in Obama for a third term but any president almost 2 years into their term can take credit for a good economy. If you deny him credit now he’ll avoid responsibility when the economy goes south. Actually, trump will do that anyway.
5
@Scott Spencer Exactly. Nothing anyone says has any impact on Mr. Trump. He is self-contained and doesn't believe he needs to learn anything.
The left doesn't like to admit to it but Obama Saved Capitalism.
5
@Ziegfeld Follies. Why wouldn’t we? Oh, you believe the silly conspiracy theories that we’re all socialists...
2
@Gustav Aschenbach Even Obama isn't comfortable with admitting it.
@Ziegfeld Follies
Saved capitalism? Maybe by demonstrating socialist policies fail.
Silly boys... The national debt has ballooned under both and that is the has been big fuel that will burn off, with pain to follow.
Thank you both so very much.
1
It’s one thing to deficit spend to pull the economy out of the abyss G.W. drove it in to versus deficit spend to give the Paris Hilton class several more feet on their next yacht purchase.
9
I have a question for all the Obama supporters:
Can you cite one act/action taken by Obama that had a positive impact on GDP?
I have asked this of two people who replied to my earlier comment. I'm still waiting.
Maybe someone else has an answer?
5
For one, steps that both Presidents Bush and Obama (giving credit where credit is due) took saved the American auto industry and auto parts suppliers.
You can also thank President Obama for any stimulus at all. The Republicans wanted only tax cuts, which didn’t do a darn thing, just as they’re not doing a darn thing now—except making the rich richer and blowing up our debt and deficit.
13
When Obama took over we were losing 750,000 jobs PER MONTH! That’s a hell of a hit on GNP. Obama stopped that despite the Republicans hanging around his neck like an albatross.
15
@C
Neither had a positive impact on GDP. The stimulus returned less than $1 per $ spent.
I do appreciate your effort.
This question of the economy is the same for North Korea or any other subject Trump has touched...
Essentially, Trump comes in, claims something is a disaster... and then walks away claiming to anyone who will listen that he fixed it all... without ever doing anything... or that there was even a problem to begin with.
He did it with the economy. He did it with Hillary. He did it with North Korea. He did it with his entire position as president...
"Things are horrible and only I can fix them... now that you've elected me, things couldn't be better... I already fixed them..."
It's so transparent, too. If you aren't seeing all of it, it's simply because you've invested in the guy and admitting what he is truly about will ruin your investment. Stop throwing good money after bad... please.
9
Name one single program conceived and enacted by Obama and the Democrats that was pro business.
Any improvement in the private sector business was INSPITE of Obama...not because of Obama..,,,,
4
@ramblero Because Democrats put people (healthcare, minimum wage, DACA, etc) before Corporations. Under Trump, business profits swelled to embarrassingly high numbers while average American workers saw pathetically small increases. And if you live in high tax states, the so-called tax reform will raise taxes in 2018. So bloviate all you want, the rich got richer and the rest of us fight over the crumbs.
3
@ramblero. Pro-American: bank regulations protecting consumers; for-profit college regulations protecting consumers; the list is long.
Pro-business? I’d say the bank and auto industry bailouts that basically saved many of them from bankruptcy and extinction was pretty pro-business.
10
@ramblero
Bailing out Chrysler and General Motors.
5
Statista reports the following full-time employment, by year:
121.49 - 2015
123.76 - 2016
125.97 - 1017
130.64 - 2018 (July)
Trump has no right to claim historically high employment, as hardly any reputable economics professional believes that the man occupying the White House has little if anything to do with employment levels.
On the other hand, the media pundits either don't understand economics, are mesmerized by Obama's soaring rhetoric, or are simply down-right politically biased.
1
@Enarco
Since this is the first statement by Obama, and since he has to come out and defend his economic policies that brought the US back from the brink, (whether you believe that or not makes no difference) the facts are the facts,
But I highly doubt that people are mesmerized by Obama's "soaring rhetoric" as you call it. In fact Obama is defending the whole truth. Since the economic damage from massive corporate tax cuts, and the tariffs haven't been fully felt yet. At this stage, Trump was handed a working growing economy, for him to take credit for an economy that is subsidizing corporations that are eclipsing the 1 trillion dollar mark, using tax payer money, is what's ludicrous.
6
Ridiculous premise your anonymous economic professors have. Presidents usually lead the charge for deficit spending and hence have huge influence on unemployment (and other) indexes.
@Mike
It's true that Presidents usually lead the charge for deficit spending. That's why one of the first things that Obama did in 2009 was to establish the bipartisan "Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform." Their report hardly saw the light of day with Obama and Harry Reid, even though 11 of 18 (61.1%) of the members endorsed the Commission's recommendations. Obama also ran on his Pay-Go platform as he did in fact champion in Illinois. At least you might admit that he "didn't lead any charge".
Additionally, Obama also set up one additional bipartisan Blue-Ribbon group: The Council on Jobs & Competitiveness. Nothing was ever done and the issue of jobs and competitiveness was never address.
Obama did many good thing during his Presidency, e.g. moving closer to some form of universal health, as well as his fiscal stimulation which House Republicans vigorous attempted to kill.
The economy will INEVITABLY take a downward turn as a 3.9 % unemployment rate is absolutely unsustainable. Will Trump blame his predecessor when that happens?
8
@stu freeman
The 3.9% unemployment rate is also a fantasy number based on "employment participation".
If you aren't actively seeking a job through government agency or seeking benefits from them to compensate, then you aren't counted in that percentage.
The actual number of unemployed is probably closer to 40-60% of the country.
1
@J
Do you have anything to substantiate, I'm not a Trump fan, and as far as the counting of the unemployed you're correct, those that aren't collecting a check, or in some way availing themselves to be counted, then yes, the unemployment rate is higher than the 3.9%
Nonsense. There are other Labor Department indexes that measure those who have dropped out of the labor market. They’re just as popular for press release. These indexes don’t claim to measure their substance with absolute accuracy, although they are huge sample sizes, 60,000 homes are called. They are mainly used to compare one year with another.
America has NEVER had an unemployment rate of 40%. At the height of the depression it was 25%.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.html
3
....and the national debt is growing faster than the GDP.
Fabulous. Marvelous. And whatever else the moron might add.
7
"But former President Barack Obama finds all the Trumpian chest-thumping more than a little grating, given that the 'booming' started on his watch."
What Mr. Obama accomplished in 8 years, Mr. Trump did in 2 years. Mr. Obama could have accomplished much more if he did what Trump did which was getting rid of unnecessary regulations. Also the tax reform bill made it possible for some corporations to make more investments which required more jobs.
I disagree with Trump's war against the environment and I disagree with his trade wars, but he did get some things right.
By the way, not that anyone cares, but I recently threw out the Republican Party because it has become an anti-science anti-environment Christian extremist party. After two years with Trump I am starting to miss Mr. Obama.
4
@BobC: Are you kidding? Were you alive in 2008 or do you simply have no recollection of what Obama had to deal with when a fast-collapsing economy was placed in his hands? Trump was able to work himself out of bankruptcy on four occasions simply because Russians and Saudis and a few local capitalists were happy to bail him out thanks to his dad's successful business record. Obama had to find a way to bail out the banks and the auto industry and to prevent tens of thousands of local government employees from losing their jobs. All of which he managed to do with no help whatsoever from the "loyal opposition." Once that was accomplished, he got the unemployment rate down from 10% to 5%. Trump has reduced it further to 3.9% while running up the national debt with those tax cuts to billionaire CEOs and tossing out the regulations that will end up polluting our air and drinking water and opening our national parks to fossil fuel development. I began missing Obama long before The Donald even got elected.
13
@BobC Before BHO took office (October 2007) the bottom fell out of the economy due to banking scandals. When he was inaugurated in Jan, 2008, we were hemorraghing 700,000 jobs per month. You can't compare the recovery that began in 2010-11 with what Trump inherited in 2017.
6
Trump is reflecting on Obama's policies. What has Trump done in his 1.5 years that you state? Federal Reserve? Labor? Natural Resources? Banking? Healthcare? WTA? All of this goes toward economic policy- not 1.5 years of chaos from Trump. I know of no bills he has enacted except trying to diminish Obama due to hatred and his own ego.
1
More lies from the Liar-in-chief Trump...shocking!!! NOT.
I suppose we should be extremely grateful that Trump didn't immediately tank the economy by getting the country into a world wide trade war. He still might.
And yes, the tax cut for billionaires has some stimulative effect...but was unnecessary and is resulting in a ballooning deficit and national debt. In the end, it will hurt the economy more than it helped. As for the deregulation changes, done at the expense of human health and safety, and environmental health, those will hurt us now much more than they help business. But the billionaires and republicans don't care. They want power and money now.
And yes, Obama didn't run around "trumpeting" his successes with the economy. Trump gets in and immediately America is "great again". No matter what the economy, or anything else, was doing...whether there was any change at all, Trump was going to and is claiming that it's so much better than ever in history because he is president. Under Obama 5% unemployment is not even real according to Trump, but the 4% under Trump is totally real.
If you're a Trumpkin...you believe whatever Trump tells you and nothing else. He could tell you that no one had jobs under Obama and you'd believe it. Sad.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
13
Where's my tax cut? I see no increase in pay at all. Lies Lies and more Lies.
17
@sooze. My taxes are going up this year. I had the moral clarity to vote for Hillary, and the good fortune of being born in California, and we’re being punished for not voting for the traitor.
6
@sooze
"I see no increase in pay at all."
***********
Your take-home pay, if you're on a W-2, is a function of your salary, benefits and withholding. You determine how much you want withheld. It is a flexible number.
Some people withhold more than necessary and get the extra back as a refund, using it as a forced savings. Others prefer not to give an extra dime to the government, so they withhold as little as possible and just pay what they owe when their tax return is filed.
You really cannot tell whether you've gotten a tax break by your take-home pay. You will know when you do your 2018 tax return and everything gets reconciled.
Who ever studied Macro Economics knows what is TRADE CYCLE. And they know that Trump Presidency is nothing to do with current economic surge, unemployment etc. Trump is just IGNORANT and takes credit for no reason.
9
@Trevor Diaz
You are correct, but those that worship Trump, will never accept that.
1
I’m certainly not surprised - isn’t this what typically happens??? A Republican administration, despite their feigning fiscal conservativeness, spend like drunken sailors, run-up the deficit and destroy the economy while they’re at it, then the incoming responsible Democratic administration utilizes every ounce of political capital to restore order - just to have to repeat the cycle. When are people going to learn: Republican = Irresponsibility, Democrat = Responsibility.
16
It’s your character Mr. President, not the economy that’s the major concern . . . Burni Madoff was a nice guy and enjoyed being rich until the lies caught up with him. We elect a President to run the executive branch. If the economy is good but the government fails, then we are spending money borrowed over time. At this rate our national debt will be so high that China may be forced to call for immediate payment. Eat, drink, and be marry, for tomorrow we pay the bill,
1
Funny, how Obama takes credit fast enough for a GDP percentage he himself said was very unlikely to be achieved while he was in office. But I'll bet Obama will be even faster blaming Trump for any additional debacle in Syria.
6
@JW Trump has been very fortunate not to face a real international crisis. Perhaps that's what's needed to test this blowhard.
2
@mb I'd rather him not be tested by any crisis... he fails daily at normalcy.
1
@JW
Except, didn't Trump just drop is withdraw of American forces from Syria.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/world/middleeast/trump-syria-troops.html
More and more businesses are laying off workers or closing due to Trump's tariffs so we will see how great the economy is in a few weeks. Maybe he intends to hand out welfare to all those companies as he did the farmers to keep the economy ticking along.
8
Now, as usual, by the time the Democrats get back in control, they will have to clean up the fiscal irresponsibilities that the GOP started. And then the Dems get blamed for the bad economy. Reagonomics was a disaster.
14
Not only did Obama inherit one of the country's biggest financial disasters that had been set up by Bush jr and the Republicans, Mr. Obama then got the country going again, so that by the end of the Obama presidency, unemployment was way down and the enconomy was growing robustly. For some odd reason Hillary never beat home this point. Trump might be able to take some credit due to the effect his tax breaks have on business, but for him to take full credit does not align with the facts. Mr. Trump is largely along for the ride.
36
@Bill
It’s clear you’ve conveniently forgotten (if you ever knew... or more importantly...understood) the cause of the 2008 financial crisis....Clinton’s demand in the 1990’s of banks lending to completely unqualified mortgage borrowers.
3
and Obama moved us out of a recession due to his policies regarding healthcare, banking (Dodd-Frank) in hopes no one's greed will sink us again. Unfortunately Trump wants to roll back this check and balance and it could happen again. Very likely will with Trump's mindset.
@ramblero seems like it's rather common for politicians "on both sides" to do what puts them in good graces with constituents rather than running the government with a balance to short and long term fiscal accountability. another reason we desperately need term limits and campaign finance reform.
1
Obama inherited a jobless rate of over 10% and handed over a jobless rate of under 5%. Trump is reaping the benefit of Obama's economic policies.
The tax cut is also providing an artificial bump to prosperity. The piper will be paid-- down the road.
44
@FJG
Name ONE SINGLE PROGRAM supporting private sector business conceived and enacted by Obama.
I’ll wait...
3
@ramblero
If you feel that bailing out the banks, investment firms and two major auto manufacturers (not to mention all the ancillary businesses dependent on them) was not supporting private sector business then please define private sector business for me. I'll wait too...
Or perhaps you see these acts merely as corporate welfare (I certainly do) and your an Occupy Wall Street kind of guy, cleverly disguised. Somehow I doubt it.
You think ONE single "private sector" program is our economy?
This is a great economy for only some of the people. How great are things when teachers have to take on second and third jobs? How great are things when the wealth gap is bigger than ever? And how wonderful is it when millions of Americans can’t afford health care in one of the most prosperous countries in the world? We also have a Congress that rewarded the chosen few with a giant tax break. And the next recession may be right around the corner.
20
Go ask the automotive companies in Detroit, and their unions, who did more to save their jobs:
Obama? Or Trump with his " adjustments" to NAFTA?
Go ask Detroit which prez gets credit for Detroit now touting itself as "America's comeback city".
11
You betcha Trump's administration is changing the economy and American businesses.
Just ask anyone adversely affected by tariffs and the trade war.
But Trump's affects don't stop there, For example:
1. The EPA is tossing away the Obama-era rules governing coal ash disposal. The changes annually will save companies compliance costs of up to $100 million.
One result: more than 400 coal-fired power plants in USA can now keep unlined coal ash ponds.
Tossing the coal regulations means more risk of poisoning clean drinking water for millions of Americans, plus hurting already-endangered ecosystems.
2. Betsy DeVos rolled back Dept. of Education regulations, and gave reprieves, to scandal ridden for-profit schools at risk of losing their federal funding .
The Obama-era regulations were reviled by the industry, because the regulations would cut off funding to low-performing programs.
Also the Obama rules made it easier for defrauded students to wipe out their loans.But that has changed now.
Said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey: "What they've done is actually make it easier for schools to cheat these students.”
3. Trump's tax cuts and last month's budget-busting spending bill is sending the federal deficit toward the $1 trillion mark next year, according to the Congressional Budget Office; the nation's $21 trillion debt would spike to more than $33 trillion in 10 years.
4. But hey, Trump wants to keep giving American farmers corporate welfare.
14
As usual, the Democrats get no credit for the revival of the economy after the Republican Party blew up the country under Bush.
We're still engaged in hopeless wars that only the Dems can end.
And, as usual, we'll have to clean up the fiscal disaster the Republican Party created with their unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy. We'll have to end the wars consuming our youth and raise taxes to pay down the debt. The party of responsibility will be held again accountable for the likely economic downturn and thr cycle will repeat itself.
Spectacularly depressing.
You got to give the Republicans credit- they wreck the world and then count on us to fix their disasters- which we do over and over.
And then they go on to win elections because of our responsibility. Genious. How I despise them.
18
Trump's booming economy is a sugar rush from his tax cuts for the rich and corporations. I wonder what he'll say when sugar rush ends? Answer: the economy will tank and the deficit will go up like a rocket.
14
I can sum it up quite simply, if it is Good News for the Economy it is because of President Obama, if it is bad news it is because of President Trump.
13
@Dave
Close, but you need to be more specific. If it is good news for the economy it is because of sound fiscal policy and steady presidential leadership. If it is bad news, it’s because of a the fallout from an unnecessary trade war and uncertainty caused by an erratic, uninformed, and unstable US president.
4
Mr Trump is being blind about the time course of the course of the economy. The changes to the economy the Obama office made could not be expected to have their more important effects immediately after they were initiated. Rather, the effects of the changes in the rules the Obama administration made would be expected to have effects on the health of the economy now, just as we are observing. Any significant effects of the interventions made by the Trump administration would not be expected to have manifested themselves yet. We will need to wait and see how healthy our economy is at the end of the Trump administration's term, rather than less than a year since the interventions were initiated.
3
The recession ended in June 2009. What happened under Obama was one of the slowest recoveries in the US history.
Note that each quarter in 2017 was better than the same quarter in 2016, and each quarter in 2018 was better than the same quarter in 2017.
On the other side, 2016 was worse than 2015....
So, the argument that today's strong economy is a result of Obama's actions is weak.
6
@Hyphenated American
GDP growth, yearly:
2014: 2.5%
2015: 2.9%
2016: 1.6%
2017: 2.2%
2018: TBD; forecast around 3.0%
Keep in mind, Trump has taken the 2018 deficit from the $487 billion he inherited from Obama (CBO January 2017 baseline) and increased that to an estimated $800-900 billion (CBO and OMB forecasts) roughly an 80% increase.
We are trading debt for GDP, and since real wages are flat due to higher inflation, the typical worker isn't seeing that benefit.
11
Oft said about Trump, but the "born on third and thinks he hit a homer" description also applies to his view on the economy.
16
One of the best ways to evaluate the economy is to look at job creation and the number of jobs; this is the non-farm payrolls number reported monthly, arguably the most important single metric. It reflects both the private sector and government.
1. The total number of jobs regained its late 2007 pre-crisis record level (and recall that was a bubble) by May 2014. We've been in record territory since.
2. As the article indicates, job creation was faster in Obama's last 19 months than Trump's first 19 months.
3. Job creation monthly average by year:
2014 250,000
2015 226,000
2016 195,000
2017 182,000
2018 207,000 (so far through August)
If you want to analyze the data, you can graph and download it here:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS/
11
Please, let’s hope they leave it with just bragging whose economy is bigger.
3
Growth of national debt should be mentioned in the same sentence as economic growth. So, people can understand where the economic growth is coming from.
12
His message is the same as Hillary’s and how did that turn out for Democrats, LOL.
8
@M
If only the Democrats had Russian hackers working for them in the effort to illegally elect Hillary’s opponent in 2016.
3
@Blank
She’d still lose.
@M
Yes, Obama is preaching to the choir but that is what the choir needs to get out to vote. Problem is he's also preaching, which was a big turnoff to a lot of people.
Obama is comical. The blind liberals will actually still believe him though. Remember when he thought 1.5% growth was good? Right. He had no magic wand. Trump does. It is all about policies. The liberals have none. Their only answer now is slander, because when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers.
But their slander is proving false. From hookers, to collusion, to obstruction, to bad attorneys, to pathetic books, it is all slander.
10
@Duane Mathias -- Facts are a tough thing. The article is full of them. Other facts - what policy plans do the Republicans have -- for health care for example -- where is that awesome plan they had for 7 years going on 9 now. Oh yes get sick, die quickly. And those budget deficits, they go up under Republicans, down under Democrats, sorry to remind you Obama had to clean up Bushes gigantic mess of tax cut/unfunded war/deregulate banks of doodoo which blew up to over 1 trillion in deficit after squandering the 300 billion/year surplus he inherited from Clinton. Trump has cut taxes and is driving the deficit up again, he deregulates, threatens wars, does this sound like a familiar story?
8
"Magic Wand" is the operative word here. Thank heavens President Obama is finally speaking out about the danger we face living in Fantasyland where a lie passes for truth and religious bigotry and paranoia are honored more than reality. Sumter Coleman
2
@Duane Mathias
It’s all about corrupt officials and associates of Trump going to prison. At some we must accept the fact that the world isn’t flat.
Has anyone told Trump that the Dow was at it's highest in January of this year and then some idiot decided to open his mouth and say something about starting a trade war which caused the Dow to begin falling until it finally stopped 2500 points lower then what it had been.
It has come back some but the idiot keeps opening his mouth.
21
Trump INHERITED this economy! And with his trade war, he is hellbent on destroying it! Already, Rrumo and the Republicans have had to give U.S. farmers a $47 BILLION dollar subsidy to help make up for the LOSS of their Asian market! Socialism, something the conservatives love to label the Liberals with but guess who is practicing? Donald. Without that huge subsidy the farmers would have suffered financial disasters!
The economy's GDP did hit 4% during Obama's, several times! Be prepared for the recession that's coming when Donald's tariffs hit the market fully!
In the mean time, I will thank President Obama for digging us out of the Great Recession!
27
@Mari Listen to the experts at the briefing today and learn somethings about the truth, not hearsay.
1
@Mari So if President Trump had done absolutely nothing as far as Economic Policy and the Economy cratered would you blame the Obama Administration? President Trumps tariffs are going to force our trading partners to trade fairly. It is called a negotiation process.
5
So, Trump has done almost as well as Obama, and he did it by taking out a mortgage our children and grandchildren will have to pay. He's running the country like a business, only one of his, that failed.
28
@Chris Take another Hate Trump Pills and study the real facts. They were announced today, but the Trump hating press probably won't print them.
3
@tonyjm: you talk about the "real" facts.
what about longterm effects?
somebody who knows he will be at the helm
for less than a decade [hopefully much less]
won't have to care 1 bit about how s/he harms
generations to come, economically, environ-
MENTALLY, health-wise, spiritually ...
I like the bathtub analogy. When Obama was sworn in, the bathtub had huge cracks in it, the faucet was turned off, and the water was draining fast. On his watch, the cracks were repaired and the flow of water was restored. By the end of his administration, the tub was filling steadily.
During Trump's term so far, not much has changed. The cracks are still repaired and the water is still flowing in, at about the same rate. A little more if you look at GDP, a little less if you look at job creation.
Trump has little to take credit for. The only difference is that more time has passed. Now the tub is much more full. That was going to be the case whoever was sworn in in January 2017.
24
"In the 19 months starting after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the economy has created 3.58 million new jobs — but that is still shy of the 3.96 million created in the last 19 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency. The nation’s economy has grown at a steadily higher pace in the past year than it did during the end of Mr. Obama’s term, reaching an annualized rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter of this year. But the last time it was that high was in 2014 — when Mr. Obama was in charge."
If only the Trumpers knew what to do with data (besides ignore it).....
18
@David: Problem is - the GDP growth slowed down before Trump was inaugurated. 2016 was worse than 2015. On the other side, 2017 was much better than 2016, and 2018 is much better than 2017.
If only Obamanoids knew what to do with data (besides ignore it)...
3
@Hyphenated American: Deficit of over $1T this FY alone, pushing interest rates up. Tariffs on imported goods wiping out the tiny middle class wage "bump" created by borrowed money. If only . . . oh, forget it. The next recession and cuts to Social Security and Medicare will teach Trumpers.
@Hyphenated American
Deficit spending will make economic growth numbers look good for a time but it's not sustainable.
The only thing Trump has done to help the economy is that he stopped talking it down as he continually did during the Obama administration and now that he's president he talks it up. His supporters are easily duped.
During the Obama administration Trump continually cited the misleading "labor participation rate" statistic to attack the state of the economy. The labor participation rate was low because members of the large "Baby Boom" generation were retiring by the millions and retirees comprised a larger share of the population. The labor participation rate is still low because the Baby Boomers are still retired, but now that Trump is president he hasn't mentioned it once.
Trump used to claim that the improving unemployment rate under Obama was faked and he claimed that the real unemployment rate might be as high as 42%.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/30/donald-t...
Of course, now that he's president suddenly the official rate is the Gold Standard.
The same economic results Trump hails as sign of the "great job he is doing and that should keep him from being impeached" were a sign of a failing economy under Obama. Recall that after the Clinton expansion, the Dow was at 11351 on Bush's inauguration 1/20/01 and was down 36% at 7449 1/20/09 by Obama's inauguration. The Bush administration claimed the economy was stagnant/ failing and needed a tax cut stimuli--which did temporarily raise the Dow to record levels. We will see where the Dow ends up under the Donald with his tax cuts and idiotic trade war. Anyone who believes that the level of Dow today will be higher after 4yrs of Trump policies(not 8 like Bush please), needs to check the record of republicans and their tax cuts and the ultimate effects on the economy (spoiler alert --they are not good!).
4
Obama is not an economist but he has a well educated and soundly reasoning mind. His policies were conservative and he followed conventional policies to deal with the Great Recession. His stimulus legislation was probably not perfect but the economy recovered in the expected time frame for one struck by a financial market crash that erased vast wealth and left big debts.
But despite the suffering caused, the blocking of government funding by Republicans held down deficit spending and allowed a gradual recovery with little inflation which allowed businesses to profit without growing much. It made securities markets very prosperous but left most people not at all better off.
Meanwhile, businesses saw no grow in demand to justify greater investment in production facilities requiring either more employees nor a lot of new construction which required a lot of new jobs being created. They mistrusted Obama and hoped for a Republican who might cut taxes and regulations. Trump was their man and they opened their safes and jumped in. But so far, they are just moving money around rather than creating enough new wealth in a way that shares it with employees and the public through tax revenues as Republicans promise but businesses seldom seem to do.
The extreme tax cut is likely to produce a trillion in national debt and the costs will not be covered by deficit spending, anymore. It will be tax hikes or no more Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nor tax payer funded services.
6
The worst thing about this is the continuing normalization, by both sides now, of the fictional narrative that "happy days are here again." You can pick your statistics and select your timeframes to suit your purposes, but the argument over getting credit for the wonderful state of the economy is the wrong argument to be having. If " it's the economy, stupid" is really the point, then be careful about how you measure things. GDP? Who got the gains? Employment? What kind of employment? For me, and I think for a true measure of what's important in the long run, it's the comfort, stability, and long-term prospects for the average person and that person's family. By those measures, we are still in a heap of trouble, and it's only getting worse. Of course, as economists say, in the long term we are all dead.
4
Trump is being Trump when he claims credit for the current peak of the US economy. That is what he has done for the last twenty years. Someone else builds the building, and Trump shows up and slaps on his fake glittering gold letters “Trump Towers” and smiles for the photo ops. Someone else designed it, someone else laid the foundations, someone else built the walls, often times someone else financed it, and only when the spiral or the flag goes atop the high rise building, Mr. Self-Promotion shows up. Regardless of what Trump claims, history will note that it was Obama who brought the US economy back from the depths of deep recession with right help from the US Congress and the Federal Reserve, and put it on a sound footing. Trump will again be Trump when the steam runs out of this 10-year long economic recovery, Trump will be quick to blame everyone else but himself.
4
Mr Trumps supporters probably won't bother to look at graphs, they just seem to accept what they are told, "that under President Trump the economy is booming, as never before". Logic and reality does not come into this. Further down the road when the recent trade sanctions bite, things may be different, then will be the time to blame it on Mr Obama. Look what do I know, I am just a Brit, but I really can't believe that this angry orange Gummi bear was somehow elected.
6
@Henry Rawlinson: But the GPD dipped from 2015 to 2016, and then became growing very quickly in 2017 and even faster in 2018.
I wonder why you did not look at the data, and just assumed blindly what Obama told you.
1
@Hyphenated American
Look at the data again. The GDP did not “dip” from 2015 to 2016. The quarterly growth declined during 2015 quarters 3 and 4, but was still positive. I.e., GDP continued to grow throughout. Quarterly growth rates in 2015 quarters 1 and 2 were higher than in any quarter of 2017, and growth in 2014 quarter 3 was higher than the much-vaunted 2018 quarter 2. Statistically, the GDP is noisy. It’s been growing steadily since the recession. But there is no evidence in the GDP numbers that GDP growth rate has been significantly increased by the Trump presidency.
A Bureau of Labor Statistics graph shows that the unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing since 2010. Steadily, no matter who was President. Unemployment did not suddenly decrease abruptly when Trump became president, it continued the same steady decline. The Times should publish this graph, along with plots of GDP and monthly GDP growth (readily available online from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis). These plots show that the economy has been improving steadily since the 2008-2009 recession, and clarify that Trump's assertions that he should get credit for "one of the greatest economic revivals in the history of our country" are a groundless sales pitch, totally unjustified by the facts.
6
@Don Twieg
Yet another person who is living in a different world.
The “facts” are that during the Obama years, the Federal Reserve undertook the most aggressive monetary stimulus actions ever known. These included interest rates at zero and over $4.25T in Quantitative Easing. This was necessary to keep an economy that was smothered by over-regulation alive. Both of these policy moves have been reversed because the economy has responded well to Trump’s initiatives.
Also, GDP figures are reported quarterly, good luck on getting monthly numbers.
Last, can you cite one act/action taken by Obama that had a positive impact on GDP?
I bet you can’t.
1
@Rob Roy
You're right about monthly vs. quarterly GDP increases. I meant to say quarterly.
No, I can't point to a GDP increase that I can claim was due to an identifiable Obama action, because the GDP is influenced by many many factors that don't have anything to do with presidential actions. All I can say is that if President Trump has done anything to improve the GDP beyond its trend of continuing growth, or to decrease unemployment rates beyond what we'd expect from their longstanding decline, the actual GDP and unemployment numbers don't show it.
@Don Twieg
Thank you for being honest.
Liberals no NOTHING about how to run a strong economy! They are hapless and hopeless with no idea how capitalism works. Obama was (and is) actually against America's capitalist structure and he did everything he could to slow it down and increase debt. He hates business and all the former "slave traders" that gained wealth with "free" labor. He supports the reduction in wages to make it "fair" as compared to other poorer nations. He is clearly deluded about his abilities (or just plain lying).
1
Seems to me that Obama never gave Bush any credit for anything. Bush, of course, says the recovery was just getting started with his administration. Obama spent the next three years, or more, blaming everything on Bush. Now he is blaming things on The Don. I place value on Obama's humanitarian impulses, but wish he would stop blaming everyone else on the planet for various problems. Even H. Clinton blamed the Supreme Court for her loss. The Don has taken extensive blame to new heights. Can we not end the blame game?
1
@Tax Questions
There is ample data showing that Bush left with the economy in a free fall that began in 2007 and that it bottomed out in 2009. No US President (or any international leader I can think of) has turned around a large, failing economy in a year. The blame that Obama places on the Bush administration is well-deserved, and the numbers show it.
7
It gives me the chills just thinking about what would have happened had the financial crisis occurred on trump's watch. Thank god we had a sane, smart, and decent person in charge at the time, and reasonable actions by the Fed since. Also funny is all the crowing from the right about the news tax laws and its (over) stimulus. We will pay for this, as long as the 1% aren't included in the "we".
11
Trump is not fit for office.Trump frantically searches for the author of an op-ed; threatening them with treason charges.Woodward book has Trump attacking the author. Trump is attacking President Obama; re tweeting abusive Tweets. Trump is impetuous;adverserial; petty and ineffective. Trump is not fit for office. Ray Sipe
3
If the Democrats win big November and the economy begins to dive in 2019, you can bet Trump will pin any downward trends on them. Fortunately, he has created a huge trail of horrible economic policies that should be easy to point out. Democratic candidates in 2020 should have plenty of counter arguments, if they can just resist their tendency to over explain and roll out excessively complicated solutions.
8
YES you are right about complexity HOWEVER I would suggest that simple minds like simple solutions. YET the solutions may be complex. That just means we can have complex FIXES but need simple explanations for the simple minded. DEMS are terrible at explaining complex problems simply because problems are NOT simple.
2
@AndyW: And if the DNC don't win big, and the economy continue growing, and 2018 annual growth in GDP exceeds 2%, the average of Obama's economy - then the Democrats will explain that it is all due to Obama.
Correct?
1
@Hyphenated American: Ninety-five months is the longest sustained growth economy in the nation's history. Unless you believe in fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk, no tree grows to the sky, does it?
The mildly self-complementary thing Trump could honestly say — “Hey, I haven’t torpedoed the Obama economy yet, thanks to continuing resolutions” — is a far cry from the unsupportable boasting he is doing.
4
Bosh! on this whole "great economy" argument. Mr. Obama did what he had to do to keep the world from going over a cliff, Mr. Trump did what he didn't have to do to pump it some more, but the net result is still a house of cards built on cheap credit, adroit Fed manipulation, and staggering deficits, burdened even more heavily by a huge aging population that will spend every last cent we have (and then a whole lot more) on keeping them alive far past their natural sell-by dates. The whole sorry spectacle will have our children and grandchildren rightfully shaking their fists over our graves.
2
@Andrew Hidas: the recession ended in June 2009, and then we saw the slowest recovery in the history of this country.
"You didn't build that"... isn't that what "The Obama" said about private business owners? That type of collectivist/Marxist rhetoric does not inspire the entrepreneurial spirit.
Peter, it shows that you're not an economist. Credit for economic growth since the NBER declared the recession over in mid 2009, to the extent it is attributable to any governmental entity, belongs mainly to the Federal Reserve. Chairman Bernanke and his European and Asian peers steered a careful course between stricter lending standards on one hand, and a huge stimulus in the form of negative effective interest rates and massive bond repurchases on the other, yielding steady growth from 2010 through 2016 without the inflationary surge many feared from persistently high federal deficits.
If Mr. Trump has had any positive impact, it is from the fact that in 2015-16 economists and investors were expecting even slower future growth under a Clinton administration due to both a reversal of Fed stimulus and, at best, neutral fiscal policy if the GOP kept control of Congress.
The surprise election of President Trump and retention of GOP majorities in Congress changed those expectations, as odds for business-friendly tax-law changes and neutral Fed policy rose.
President Trump's expansionist, deficit-raising fiscal policy however, has coincided with restrictive Fed policy, which President Obama never faced. President Trump's trade policies are also jacking up economic uncertainty and discouraging investment in the near term, with uncertain effects long-term.
8
Great summary. I feel we need a way to make this stuff easily understandable by more activists and voters. National debt and federal budget deficit paranoia is crushing any political pathway to higher productivity through infrastructure investment and research funding (outside of weapons development).
2
As Dr. Mankiw said, Trump basically inherited an economy that had fully recovered by 2014 and is borrowing enormously to speed it up a little bit. Trump is also sabotaging healthcare, costing millions their insurance, as Obama said.
1. The debt addition trajectory for 2018-2027 has increased from $9.4 trillion (CBO January 2017 baseline) to $13.7 trillion (CBO April 2018 current policy baseline), an increase of $4.3 trillion, or nearly 50%. This $4.3 trillion is about $34,000 per household, far more than the $900/year x 10 = $9,000 the 50th percentile family is expected to benefit. This shows just how unequal the tax cuts are, with the bottom 60% getting 17% of the benefit.
2. The number of uninsured is up 3-4 million since 2016 thanks to Trump's ACA sabotage. CBO estimated that we would have 28 million uninsured in 2026 prior to Trump's meddling; this is now 35 million, and increase of 7 million or 25%.
3. Annual GDP growth for 2017 was 2.2%, faster than 2016 but slower than 2014 and 2015. Government spending was held flat from 2009 to 2014 at about $3.5 trillion to bring the budget deficit back to historical average as % GDP by 2014, which slowed GDP growth by about 0.4% during that time. If Republicans take credit for that austerity, they get credit for the slower growth.
4. Obama had 4 quarters of GDP growth above the latest 4.2% quarter; Obama's best quarter was 5.1% in 2014. Trump's latest quarter got a 1.6% boost from phony trade wars and debt increases.
10
@David Doney: David, the growth was slowing down from 2014 to 2015 to 2016.... and then the growth recovered in 2017, and accelerated in 2018.
Clearly, president Trump inherited a slowing economy and turbo-charged it.
With the Tea Party victory in 2010 Obama's efforts to stimulate the economy were ended. Austerity and the sequester seemed to destine the economy for another recession. But paying off the banks with quantitative easing and the cash for clunkers and bailing out the auto industry saved the economy from Mitch McConnell's fondest dream, ruining Obama presidency. Now with the economy doing well Trump and the Rs are putting the financial system under threat by ending regulations out of 2008. Add to that the tax scofflaw's dream come true with the absurdly generous corporate tax cut. Trump is even going further with his bombastic aggressive leadership and his trade war extortion.
10
The economy is doing quite well for the top 10%. Not so much for everyone else. Wealth inequality has been growing since Reagan, and has been accelerating ever since. This is something for either Obama or Trump to boast about?
6
Obama's policies would have helped raise wages for the Working and Middle classes had the Republicans not blocked everything Obama tried to implement! The Jobs Bill, Obama tried to pass would have begun the rebuilding of our crumbling infrastructure AND helped retrain some folks whose jobs will soon be obsolete! Republicans are a disaster for the U.S.!
6
@Mari: Obama already spent a trillion dollars in stimulus spending to "rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and to help retrain the workers"....
Kidlow is right about Trump stimulating "public confidence in the economy" more effectively than Obama. I suspect that 15-20 points of that is influenced by the color of the skin of the man in office at the time of the polls.
13
The strength of this economy and the emergence of trillion dollar companies like Amazon and Apple can be said to rest on one word: technology. Computers, robotics and wi-fi hurried it along.
Trump taking full credit for the economic expansion that began long before he took office is like the Rooster taking Credit For The Sunrise.
16
What we have right now is essentially the Obama economy that has been imprudently juiced up by a reckless Republican tax cut.
15
I question the word "imprudently". Corporate tax cuts lower the cost of domestic business including manufacturing. Additionally the Trump admin has been diligently cutting regulations. He has also arguably been negotiating better trade deals from as position of strength including NAFTA and with China whose economy is questionable.
We can argue all day long about who gets the credit, but we shouldn't argue about what happened and when.
2
@John Right, but how does "lowering the cost of domestic business including manufacturing" actually help, if every single one of those companies uses the savings on a stock buyback or bonuses for their executives, instead of using it to make new investments or develop new technologies/services?
Corporate tax cuts are like communism; in theory, they're great. But once you add human nature to the equation, they are just one more scam.
Larry Kudlow continues to build on his track record of disgraceful mendacity as a Trump advisor, serving up some of the most blatantly unconvincing spin I've ever heard on economic issues.
Also, I've noticed that the critics of U.S. economic growth rates in the Obama years invariably ignore wider comparisons with the other highly developed G7 nations during the same time period. The US acquitted itself quite well in those comparisons over the course of 2009-2016. https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/g7_growth_rates_compared.png
That era was, after all, the immediate aftermath of a massive global recession- another factor that Obama's critics prefer to gloss over in silence.
The wealthy G7 nations already have mature economies; they all faced similar challenges following the 2008 collapse of the house of cards. But simple-minded rankings of US growth in comparison with the developing boom economies of China and India work so much better to serve the partisan purpose of making the Obama years seem like a failure, notwithstanding a level of contextual inappropriateness that insults the intelligence of any knowledgeable person who gives it a moment of reflection.
10
Can anyone tell me the benefits that getting or received since Trump has put his name on soooooooo many policies, is in the Oval Office? Be specific.
1
While I do believe no president can take complete credit for a booming economy upon themselves, I think it is pretty clear that the economy grew and unemployment fell well before Trump's tenure. That being said, I am disappointed to hear that consumer confidence in the market is up potentially due to Trump's unending self-proclamations. Is this what the American people resort to now to judge an economy's success? Who's the best chest-beater? Why are we not better than this?
14
Starting out on the campaign trail already down in the mud is not a hopeful sign.
The Trump family are some of the main beneficiaries of the growing economy. Is this sustainable? I certainly hope so. As much as I dislike Donald Trump and the current administration; i want the best for the country. It is utterly shameful that he continues to peddle his lies and so many are hoodwinked.
Don’t be fooled, an economy as complex as this one do not grow at this magnitude in two years. The economy was on the upswing four to five years ago.
13
No one has mentioned Trump’s tariffs. They are already causing pain among some farmers and small manufacturers. By next year,
the true depressive effect on the economy should become clear for all to see.
It will be too late to influence the midterms, of course, But if Democrats can keep the tariff issue alive, it may be key to their success in 2020.
18
The economic indicators are with the tariffs including how much faith business leaders have in them for the future.
By the way, what in President Obama's background would give you the idea he has any substantial business sense. Obama seems to be driven a a spread the wealth socialistic ideology and it is very apparent where socialism has gotten Venezuela and before that the U. S. S. R.
The best solution in my view is an economy where domestic workers can get good jobs to take care of themselves through their own income. Not one where subsidies are funded by taxing companies that do business overseas.
I want the l ok w unemployment and growing wages that enable Americans to take care of themselves without food stamps, subsidized government health care, etc.
The importance of low minority unemployment on poor families should be appreciated as well because it enables fathers to stay with and help support their families.
1
Presidents ALWAYS get either credit and or blame for whatever happens during their administrations. That is part of their national role. Blame and credit are not that simply placed and are frequently misplaced. Trump of course, takes the whole process to 11. It will not serve him well over time.
6
If anyone has any doubt as to who set the economic recovery in motion and kept it going for 80% of its trajectory just search charts of "economic growth since Obama" and "unemployment rate since Obama" and "stock market performance since Obama" and it is all stunningly conclusive. Keep all your verbal analysis, in these cases a chart is worth a thousand words, maybe even more. Add this to the fact that the Obama administration pulled the economy out of the Great Recession and stimulated the recovery while the rest of the world for most of his presidency had nearly zero growth. No one in the US press as far as I have seen takes into consideration that the world economic growth rate in the past few years has been excellent which considerably helps the US and is completely coincidental to Trump's election.
In addition Obama brought the country to nearly full employment and with full employment it is normal that the economy would accelerate as consumers have more expendable income and fewer worries about losing their jobs.
So thank you President Obama, Ben Bernanke, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Hank Paulson and your less famous cohort. Our nation has not shown you enough gratitude for our economic salvation which has continued unabated for ten years now.
25
If the economy is so good, then why am I and millions of other working Americans still struggling financially? I’ll tell you: enormous healthcare and health insurance costs, stagnant wages and decreased employer contributions to retirement plans. I have no idea how we’ll manage next year when my son goes to college and I know I’m not alone in feeling left behind by this booming economy everyone wants credit for achieving. In my opinion, it has been paid for off the backs of regular working people and the most concerning economic indicator ought to be the gaping wealth divide.
20
And who has done more to exacerbate this situation?!? With the GOP gleefully celebrating.
1
So, Obama recovery data was fake, but now it is not? Fortunately the real data is out there for anyone to see it, unless you are a blind Trump supporter.
If we look as what is happening, as our Pres says, what is really disgraceful is this administration. Worst and most corrupt.
12
Two Egomaniacs fighting over who gets credit for the Economy.....typical politicians. Barrack "Dont call me Barry' Obama has allowed himself to be drawn into a stupid argument over which glory-hound politician gets undeserved credit for something the rest of us did. "You didnt build this country"......Back at ya, Barry!!
5
@Wherever Hugo
Except that all independent studies show that it's the Recovery Act that turned around Bush's -8% GDP into a decade-long steadily growing economy, as the non partisan CBO predicted that it would.
And there are NO economic graphs out there that show any Trump dent.
That means that the objective truth is that Obama's decision back in 2009 was the right one and that he deserves full credit for it, whereas the GOP's decision to oppose it was a mistake, and as they didn't pass any bill that would objectively have an impact on the economy today yet, you cannot possibly give them credit for the current economy.
And yes it's important to know which president is objectively having which impact, because if you decide to ignore this crucial phase, as you're doing here, how will there ever be a predictable link between the way you vote (or stay home) and the outcome you want for this country ... ?
TRUTH MATTERS.
18
@Ana Luisa A plus Ana.
1
A little personal history here.......2000, Bush won an election......I got laid off three months after his innauguration....for the first time in my life. It was a scramble, I'm a survivor, and found new work,,,mostly through contract gigs......Then Bush got re-elected, 2004.....and a Bush Crony Venture Capital Group bought out my employer and laid us all off again!!..........this time no work...only temporary contracts here and there until.....2008.....and after Obama was elected, for the first time in 8 years, I got a real job, a good job .. steady but stagnant. Since Trump came into office.....the headhunters are calling me again.
8
From my point of view, Trump's economy is running precisely on the theory that if you yank the cat converter and mufflers and regulating chips off the car and pour a combo of ether and aviation fuel in the tank, you can get one heck of a lotta noise and acceleration for a little while.
Or if you prefer, Trump's economy shows that if you just run up the ol' credit cards and sign your kids up for a ton of debts, you look pretty rich for a little while.
Thing is, blowing off badly needed infrastructure and modernizations, throwing out environmental regs, screaming at your allies and trading partners, skipping lightly past what refugees mean, blowning up international agreements--all that's gonna have to be paid for.
Think things are bad now around the world? Hah. Twenty years, and we're looking at a China that runs the world, a Russia that's more like Nazi Germany than it is now, acompletely collapsed Mideast, and countries like Venezuela in ruins. Oh, and a hotter planet than ever.
This is how you get wars. Enjoy.
12
@Robert Ah sir, but you have hit the nail on the head. That is what both parties love. A big war. It's not that what trump is doing makes no sense, it just that it only makes sense in the context of starting a world war.
The only things trump can take credit for are his bankruptcies and Russian mob financing.
10
Obama doesn't have any more concern for working people than Trump does. Obama bailed out Wall Street, and all he had for distressed homeowners was the designed-to-fail HAMP. Why is it you people can see through Trump but you can't see through Obama?
And the Times needs to stop measuring the economy by how well the rich are doing.
.
4
@Ed Watters Silly idea Ed, that bailing out the banks didn't fundamentally help working people. I'm a small businessman, had the financial system continued its freezeup in '09 I would probably have lost my business (including the jobs it provided for my employees) and possibly my house as well. Hard times create hard choices, most people with distressed mortgages knew, or should have known, that they were speculating on rising home prices, either to fund their lifestyle or to buy more house than they could afford. Responsible people resisted the temptation to cash in on a "sure thing" that wasn't so sure, they didn't get themselves in trouble but WERE vulnerable to the results of other people's greed. We need the laws to punish the big time speculators who created the leveraged avalanche set off by the collapse of the housing bubble. We will NEVER get these laws with the GOP in charge.
3
@Ed Watters
Bailing out Wall Street when it was taking us close to a Depression meant giving big banks a LOAN so that they would survive, as closing down all simultaneously would have tanked the economy.
A loan means that those banks had to pay back the taxpayer money that was given to them.
Economists across the political spectrum agreed that this was the only rational solution.
That's why Bush started it, and his Democratic Congress passed it.
What Obama did, once he took over, is attaching strings to those loans: they now had to be paid back fast, and with interests.
So thanks to that bailout, Bush's -8% GDP was transformed into a decade-long steady 2% growth, AND thanks to those interests (which all banks have paid out long ago already), taxpayers earned money, you see?
As soon as you start doing some serious fact-checking, you cannot but understand that Obama was a decent and serious politician, whereas Trump only lies and throws insults and does nothing at all.
4
Solid working class here, with pension and retirement savings invested on Wall Street, in lieu of stuffing my mattress. Thanks to Obama/Brenneke strategies during the Great Recession, I may be able to retire only a couple of years later than planned.
2
"Job creation" is a relic of the bygone Socialist Era. Things like having one group dig a ditch and the next group fill it back in......Something to keep the working class occupied so they dont realize they're still starving. I think Mr. Obama should drop the "job creation" brag. Economic History, as explained by a non-scholarly amatuer, Me........Socialism and Capitalism were necessary props for the Industrial Age.........an age we no longer live in. The highly successful American version of Socialism,,,,the New Deal,,,,,is based on several concepts that lose their validity in the new Electronic Age in which this country is now Fully engaged. Sadly, men like Obama and Trump dont realize this yet....and they have lots of Yale and Harvard educated company sharing their misconceptions.
2
The only reasons I can think of why Donnie would fall asleep watching Obama's speech is 1) it was too truthful 2) multi-syllable words confuse him or 2) it wasn't a famous hamburger chain's commercial.
9
Regardless, it's both pitiful and embarrassing the Obama feels the need to even weigh in.
8
@HozeKing He and his economy are being maligned by Trump. I think it is about time he spoke up. Trump has lied about Obama so much he has to speak up. There are too many believers on Trump's side although I do not understand it since he lies an average of times per day.
4
@Sharon Conway Agreed. And Obama could not care less what the GOP thinks about what he's doing. All he's concerned about is revving up the party to get out to the polls in several weeks and start putting an end to this national nightmare. And if anyone can give a good motivational speech, it is him!
1
The US economy is strong, resilient and cyclical - and not all that impacted by Presidents Obama orTrump
2
Trump lies about everything, we all know this. He takes credit for all the good others do. Most forgot where the country was when Obama took over; Stock Market 8,000, when he left office; Stock Market 20,000..:Same with unemployment going down every month Obama was in Office. Trump's remedial policies, i.e. tariffs, not supporting our allies, his love of Putin and other dictators is only a sample of how trump will destroy all the good Obama did.
12
I would like to see information about:
Salary increases for CEO'S since the tax cut vs. salary increases for the employee.
Medical insurance coverage expansion and more vacation and leave time for workers.
Is a worker today better off than a someone who had a union job in the 1980's?
Are employers' increasing matching funds for 40lK plans and pensions?
8
Trump made his fortune at the expense of others, to wit six bankruptcies, pennies on the dollar to his creditors, many of whom were small businessmen who were crippled by Trump's ruthless practices and at the expense of the US Treasury.
Writing down nearly a billion dollars in losses on his taxes sustained in failed businesses which were forgiven in bankruptcies is probably a violation of the tax laws. Show us your tax returns Mr. Wonderful.
Now Trump is doing the same thing to the US economy. Massive tax cuts, mostly directed to his patrons and businesses, were rationalized on the basis of increased tax revenues generated from the stimulus. Most economists reject that analysis and see the cuts as giveaways.
Blowing up health care coverage, Trump's avowed objective, will damage the middle and lower economic classes which will ripple through the economy. Never mind, as long as Trump and friends get theirs.
Blowing up environmental restraints, another avowed objective, will destroy most Americans' quality of life and will be prohibitively costly to affect recovery (if at all possible). Never mind, as long as Trump's patrons can capitalize.
Blowing up consumer protection regulations, again a Trump objective, will allow predatory practices to escalate hurting the vast bulk of non-wealthy consumers. Never mind, as Trump's buddies cash in.
What's good for Trump may be not so good for you and me.
8
@Zev
Let's face it . Everything Trump does is to enrich the already filthy rich so they contribute massive amounts to his campaign.
If you’re playing a numbers game with Trump you’re going to lose because he owns the casino. There’s a good feeling now about jobs for the first time in years. You can drag Obama out of retirement to throw various figures around to prove that it’s still his economy, but Trump will still have all the chips because he’s the incumbent, and Obama is not.
2
@Ed Like And like everything else 'The Don' had a tiny little hand in, the 'casino' will go bankrupt. Businessman? Nope. Ask New Jersey about the bankrupted casinos, or the contractors he stiffed, or the non-graduates of Trump U he scammed. Incumbent or not, people are sick of this White House mafia and ready for a change.
Reading these comments, I think we have a perception problem in this country. Some people so hated President Obama that it trapped them in negativity echo chamber during his terms. All of a sudden they look up and see how great things are and assume it’s all Trump. Maybe they should’ve been looking up a lot sooner.
5
If better economic growth is important to you, you should be a Democrat and you should run away from Republican economics as fast as you can. Historically, GDP growth has been 142% better under Democratic administrations. That's like a basketball game with a final score of 121 to 50, a blowout of epic proportions. You can say to yourself, well, maybe Democrats are just lucky, but you can never get to a place where you can argue that actual results, not rhetoric, show that Republican economic policies are superior.
4
How is it we can talk about "the economy" but never mention "the deficit"?? Obama should have had the American people profit some for lending the banks the money needed to pull themselves out of bankruptcy in 2008. Obama was young and new, so I forgive him. Trump's action are the type of actions that caused the 2008 crash. Sticking our head in the sand so we can make the rich richer through tax breaks while adding to the national debt (trillions of dollars by Trump). If all the rich and corporations of America paid their fair share in taxes, and we ended the "off-shoring" of huge profits, hidden away in other countries, we could make a dent at the deficit, a big dent. But as long as we excuse the rich, it won't matter who is president...
8
A losing argument for Obama, and one that's beneath him. Most people realize that no president or administration is entirely responsible for the economy of this country. To act or believe otherwise is either disingenuous or naive.
1
The "historic tax cuts" will ultimately cause this overheated economy to crash and burn. Will Obama be blamed for this as well? No prizes for getting the correct answer.
4
@PJ . Yep Obama will get the blame.
But there is a silver lining. Trump says if he gets impeached, it's all Montana voters fault.
The recover? Two things: 1) fracking, 2) low interest rates. Take a look at the graph of petroleum imports, exports, production, and consumption from the US Energy Information Administration since 2008 -https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=oil_imports. Production doubled, exports trebled, and net imports decreased by 60%. The US is now the world's largest oil producer... by far.
Was any of this Obama's or Trump's magic? Not really. By contrast the galloping nationalism now sweeping the world: from DC to London to Stockholm to Warsaw to Moscow and Beijing will bring this house of cards crashing down - sooner rather than later. And that is something that DJT will be able to take responsibility for.
5
One President saved our economy in 2008-09, the other is reaping the benefit of the prior President on a lesser scale but with a less humble, hyperbolic mouth. I prefer #1.
10
What exactly did Obama do to result in this economic boom? $trillion stimulus, nope that he and his administration wasted, mostly on pie in the sky ideas about renewable energy. His cash for clunkers, nope that was an utter failure. His war on politically incorrect industries like coal, nope that just inflicted economic violence on millions. His attempt to exert central control over the economy using draconian regulations, nope that delated real economic recovery. His Obamacare, nope that stifled job growth by imposing higher cost on employers giving a dis-incentive to grow. Our Obama sycophants cannot point to a single policy that the Obama administration implemented that could possibly led to the economic boom.
On the other hand Obama did make it easy for Trump, all Trump had to do was to reverse all Obama's economic policies.
15
@ jaco. Please reread the article and compare the economy that Obama inherited from Bush. I don’t agree with everything he did , but he did steer the economy back into safe ground. Compare the amount of jobs created over his last 19 months with those of Trumps first 19 months. Trump is pouring gasoline over an already improving economy. The gains go to the top. Another time when the ‘let’s all eat steak every day’ mentality of aRepublican administration will require a fix by an incoming administration.
Please also consider that the Affordable Care Act gave healthcare to millions and millions of people. The signature achievement of his Presidency, that improved the lives of millions.
6
That you got this printed is a joke. Look at the economy when Obama took over i.e., losing 750,000 a month, and look at it when he left office. Dose jaco know what they are taking about? Nope! @jaco
2
@jaco Really?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dmu5XZ0XcAEL8Pl.jpg
Let me know if you prefer graphs.
1
Thanks for this report on this latest argument on the economy of the U.S. My feelings are:
I am pleased that the economy has not yet crashed and we appear to be gaining strength.
I give credit to Ben Bernanke and his team at the Fed who formulated the creative macroeconomic policies that fueled the recovery.
I followed the issue closely during the crash that took place in the final months of Bush 43 and the policy response that followed with Bush and Obama and the other leaders in the Congress and informed economists in agreement. So the policy response was bailouts.
After Mr. Obama took office, a recovery plan was created but in the words of Mr. Bernanke in testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, the Fed saw that its efforts to stimulate the economy with easy money was being impeded with fiscal policy headwinds.
Congress mounted a strong anti-deficit, anti-debt campaign with many of the luminaries of economics jumping on the deficit reduction bandwagon when the solution to the economic problem learned during the Great Depression could be solved by increased spending and investment in infrastructure.
Long-range issues such as how are we going to transition from an economy based on finite, rapidly depleting fossil fuels that are also a threat to our health and a major cause of climate change, wilding weather and increasing deaths and fatalities from an aging, congested, and underfunded transportation infrastructure are being ignored by the G.O.P.
7
@james jordan When the Mortgage Crisis occurred in 2008, we missed a giant opportunity to position the USA for the future. Instead, the genius' at the top chose to treat this crisis like a repeat of the Great Depression.....they failed to demonstrate leadership and acted only out of cowardice. The US Bankruptcy Courts, one of the proudest, best performing institutions the world has ever known, was not allowed to sort out the mess.......Instead Govt and Wall Street Cronies were bailed out, Plutocrat Style to the tune of 800Billion(coincidently almost the identical number quoted by the GAO as the cost of that ridiculous Afghan-Iraq War). John McCain lost the election by proving what the public already undestood...he's not a maverick, never was.....he voted FOR the bailout.
1
@Wherever Hugo
Thanks for reading my comment.
I totally agree with how we badly missed the opportunity to mitigate the primary home foreclosure crisis. It was terrible. It affected me and I could not push this issue to the level that it should have been. There were a lot of forces working to capitalize on the foreclosures. It could have been much easier. I could never see how the economy would benefit by throwing so many families out of their homes.
I think we should put our best most knowledgeable thinkers to work on developing a policy response for the next financial crisis.
It's simple really. Everything Trump does/says is either untrue, crude, antagonistic, defamatory, dark, insulting, or negative. By contrast, Barack is positive and upbeat, but with a tinge of 'bewareness', all with a big dose of hope and positivity. I know who I'd rather follow....
31
I could take this seriously if Democrats hadn't predicted that the economy would totally crash under Trump. If a crash would have been Trump's fault, shouldn't he receive credit for what is happening now?
The truth is that government in general, and presidents in particular, don't have as much influence on the economy as we give them credit or blame for. Government can screw things up (see Zimbabwe and Venezuela) but they can't produce prosperity.
6
@J. Waddell No to your question. The trends were in place. The only credit he would receive would be negative, that he hasn't ruined it. As the article states, there are some factors that seemed to have increased the improvement, but those have consequences of their own that we have yet to encounter.
@J. Waddell, Republicans have said the same thing about Trump too. Maybe it will crash in the future as it did in the last year under Bush. Trump deserves credit for the economy to some extent but it is clear that the economic numbers so far are really no better than they were under Obama and Obama's track record over the last 6 years is more extensive than Trump's 19 months. Furthermore, and this is the most important point, the economy Obama handed off to Trump was very good whereas the one Obama inherited was losing between 700,000 to 800,000 jobs. Obama had to help change the trajectory of the economy. Trump only had to keep it going. The tax cuts under Trump provided a boost but the cost will come due with higher interest rates in the future. If he fails to resolve these various tariff wars soon, the economy COULD take a sharp turn downward. We should expect higher inflation as a result of it.
1
The hater in our White House takes credit for the economy and when it crashes then it will be Obama’s fault.
And America worships money ; not the true value of faith and honor and honesty
and happiness. We have all sold our country’s soul to the devil for 30 pieces of silver and we are so happy for the 1% and wait for our trickled down share. Remember when the fool on the hill goes golfing we pick up the million dollar tab.
18
Obama created 380.000 more jobs in his last 19 months than Trump created in his 19 months!
End of Story.
29
“A buffoon could have kept the recovery going,” said Jen Psaki, who was Mr. Obama’s White House communications director, “and in fact one has so far.”
16
Trump's tax cut has wasted an incredible opportunity to not just grow the economy but grow it long term. Imagine the impact if the tax cut was smaller and that $1-2 trillion was put into infrastructure and research. The impact on jobs and communities.
Long term US competitiveness. Instead we have $1 trillion in stock buybacks fueling an overheated market which is sure to result in a huge decline.
14
Republicans always ignore simple, common sense when it comes to economic timelines. Anything good takes time to build (especially something as large and complicated as the U.S. economy). Building always takes time. Destroying, however, takes but a moment.
The idea that the economy instantly went from dismal to excellent, as soon as Trump took office, is childish and absurd (he and his denizens began crowing about how good the economy was within one month of Trump taking office!!). Trump has been in office for 19 months. I totally admit that the economy has kept improving under Trump's presidency (ahem, I have never heard a conservative give credit to President Obama for anything, by-the-by). Oh, and these perpetually angry, right-leaning folks are also the same people who say Obama created the recession—quite a bit of magic, considering the recession started 4 month prior to Obama actually occupying the White House.
I wish you guys on the right could be just a little realistic and stop being such petulant adolescents.
6
@Bartleby S
What instantly changed was consumer optimism. Folk who see a brighter economic future are more likely to spend. The jackboot was suddenly lifted off the economy.
@jaco, the evidence shows there was no jackboot on the economy. Last quarter's 4.2% growth rate - which was adjusted upward last week - would have been the 4th best quarter under Obama. The only thing that has changed is perception not reality.
1
@jaco
That is a great sound bite... where are your numbers that support this claim? GDP growth has basically been around 3.5 -4% since 2015.
Any idiot can look at the statistics and see that the bulk of our economic recovery from 2008-2009 forward took place entirely during the Obama administration. Trump is riding on the coattails of the Obama administration policies. JOb growth was higher under Obama for several quarters during his administration than any under Trump. Unemployment was reduced from 10% to 4%. That it dipped a couple of tenths of a percent during Trump's administration is a round-off statistic.
But things have actually gotten worse under Trump. No wage growth, a trillion-dollar national deficit due to the disastrous "tax cuts for billionaires" and unfettered and needless defense spending. When will Republicans own up to these facts?
But Trump supporters are clearly not interested in actual facts or actual statistics. They drink the Kool-Aid provided by Emperor Donald claiming that he is solely responsible for the current economic conditions. Every time some reporter goes to a Midwestern diner to talk to the MAGA-heads, that is what we hear from them.
But I blame the Democrats as well. They are not screaming the truth about the economy to potential voters. Their feckless passivity in not promoting the truth about the economy may cost Democrats the mid-term elections, and this is going to be disastrous for our nation.
Despite the weakness of the Democratic message, all Americans need to vote to curtail the excesses and the lies of the Trump administration. It is vital for America.
10
Obama took an economy that was in the doldrums, enacted his programs--and 18 months after he leaves office--the economy is humming. He's a magician!
3
Donald Trump is the third string quarterback brought in to run out the clock in a 45-3 win who then crows about how he won the game single handedly.
6
There’s no such thing as the Trump economy, or the Trump anything for that matter. He doesn’t plan, he doesn’t think, he doesn’t understand.
This president has one thing on his mind, getting re -elected . His fragile, infantile ego won’t let him contemplate the possibility that he would be hated enough to get voted out of office.
This is why he’s so dangerous. He’d do anything to stay in power and he is guided by out of control impulses.
That some aspects of governing occasionally do well despite his interference is no comfort at all.
7
Trump is of course right--- if it's also true that you can build a second story without the foundation and first floor. But then given his various bankruptcies and scams, we know he is insincere. and I use sincere on purpose. Folklore says it is from the Latin sine cere, without wax. A common rotten building practice in the late empire used wax instead of cement; and buildings collapsed. Thus an honest builder was sincere: one who didn't use wax.
2
Just saw Mike Pence berated Obama for "breaking with the tradition" of former presidents remaining quiet. Trump breaks tradition — and maybe breaks the law — all the time, and brags about it. Pence needs to look around at the destruction in Trump's wake.
7
All of this notwithstanding, Trump, this sad excuse for a president, has to go, no matter what.
3
The president who puts americas middle class back on track financially would be my pick but when a large part of the population believes that working two or three jobs to get by is normal, it's easy to convince them that the middle class is a thing of the past. Long live the seventies!
2
I'll believe Trump's bragging about the economy when I see the current account balance becomes positive.
I'll believe him even more if he can provide universal health care to all and tuition free college education to all qualified students. Medical College tuition in Euro countries costs less than $6000/- versus $200,000/- in the U.S.
The average U.S. citizen is unable to pay health care costs and higher education costs of his/her children. That is where prosperity matters, not what you or the Koch brothers earn.
What are you bragging about, Mr. Trump?
7
Of course, President Obama richly deserves credit for being a steward of the economic recovery following the deep recession which started under the Bush administration. The economic recovery would have been faster but for the concerted efforts of Republicans in congress to block all of Obama's initiatives. Of course, we are seeing a pickup in growth due to the reckless tax cuts for millionaires enacted by Republicans, which is just borrowing from our future in order to make themselves look better today.
4
It is pretty easy to see where the Dow turned around under President Obama and the same about the job market. It was President Obama's leadership, with some credit to the very end of the Bush Administration, that turned the economy and set it on its growth.
Even so, if you look at the second year of each first year in office, when the effects of their budgets kick in you see the Dow growth started to stall in January. It is only buoyed by the huge jump in our national debt that is funding the tax cuts to the corporations that are investing that money in stock buy backs. If the buy backs hadn't occurred, the market would have taken a serious drop. This life preserver will only last so long, especially in the turbulent seas caused by the Trump trade wars.
2
"Trump Claims Credit for the Economy. Not So Fast, Says Obama"
President Obama is correct and his administration deserve much credit for the current state of the US economy.
We all know that large national economies have tremendous inertia (economists compare them to huge aircraft carriers). As such, they cannot change direction, or cannot be turned around as Mr. Trump claims, within a short period. The current health of the US economy is largely due diligent groundwork of the last administration, which moved the economy out of recession and onto the path to recovery.
Let's not forget. It is always easy to borrow trillions of dollars (specially when you are the one printing those trillions), spread the money around, and convince everyone that you are prosperous. That is the way conmen have been doing it for centuries. But, in the long run, the huge debt is going to boomerang, hitting you (or, in this case your grandchildren) on the head when least expected.
6
Anyone who pays attention already knows that the economic recovery has little to do with Tump.
No one who supports Trump will change because of anything President Obama says.
President Obama's audience is those who do not pay attention and do not support Trump.
3
Economist said that recovery from such a big hit would take many years and it would be gradual. That is exactly what happened.
If Clinton had won the electoral college vote, people would be happy about her just as much.
But neither she (if she was in office) nor Trump had much to do with it.
The tax cuts, while nice, are a short term bonus but carry with them dire long term consequences.
The 1% had better shift back to earlier thinking and spread some wealth to the middle and lower classes SOON, or we will all pay economically for the Trump/Putin induced banana republic.
2
Someone should make an election ad featuring those Republicans who, during Obama administration, used to go on news and scream about budget deficit and how it would compound the national debt. The ad should also show how the same Republicans have absolutely no problem with Mr. Trump borrowing trillions of dollars, increasing the national debt by many times, to give to large corporations.
Come October, it would be nice to play that ad on the hour all day on local TV stations.
9
No, no! Consumer confidence shot up because the Republicans in Congress stopped blockading everything once one of their ilk was elected President. It had nothing to do with Trump's salesmanship. We (consumers) all recognized that with greed free to prevail, it was slightly safer to spend than hang on to our few dollars.
4
Someone explain to me how imposing as slew of tariffs is "pro business"...
11
Trump & the GOP's Tax Heist, passed in the wee hours of a morning last December, have cemented structural inequality into the nation's economy. Pre-Trump inequality was bad, now with his crazy budget busting tax giveaways to corporations and the ultra rich, the situation will - is - worsen. Who will pay for the plutocrats pay rise? Well, those of us barely able to make our monthly health insurance payments, those among us dependent on SNAP, TANF, and other essential public services. Those of us on Medicaid. Eventually the GOP will dip into Social Security, potentially pushing vulnerable seniors into poverty. They'll go for Medicare. Veterans funds. Pell grants. Finding every penny from wherever they can except the rich. This election matters because it's about morals, those forgotten and left behind and the struggling working class. Trump panders to the white working class while raiding their last dollar. Let's hope that some in his base notice this. More importantly, let's mobilize to vote for the Democratic Party, not as some revolutionary step, but as a check on the GOP's crazed policies of stealing from the American people to pay their corporate overlords, using vile white nationalist rhetoric to mobilize the white working class against their own interests.
5
The economy at any given time has always been, and will always be based upon what has been done over the past 2-3-4-5 years.
Early Reagan tax cuts and higher spending produced the deficit in late-Reagan that Bush Sr. had to deal with. Bush's more responsible actions helped lead to a good economy in early-Clinton. Clinton's continuation of sensible economic policy led to a good economy in late-Clinton and early Bush Jr years. Bush Jr's tax cuts and deregulation led to the overactive economy of late-Bush and the crash of 2008. Bush era and the crash caused the lousy economy in early-Obama. Early-Obama stimulus and bailouts led to a stable and recovering economy in late-Obama and early-Trump.
Trump's policies haven't had enough time to have much effect on the economy. As the article notes, most everything that Trump boasts about was going on under Obama.
Trump's policies of big tax cuts, higher spending and running up the growth rate to an unsustainable level will only produce the same results as when Reagan and Bush Jr did the same things.
Trump thinks only in the short run; the next tweet or the next rally. At some point when the economy falters he'll say "Who knew economy could be so complicated?", and find some way to blame the Dems or the media.
And Trump's backers and others who think economy is a short term thing, will blame the next President for the problems Trump is causing. Believe me, believe me!
66
Trump continues to take credit for what other’s have done. It’s nothing new. Deep down, even his supporters have to know what liar he truly is. Obama took tremendous chances on a stimulus package that people didn’t believe in, and it worked. He inherited one of the most disastrous economies ever and completely turned it around. That is what was historical. Obama completely changed healthcare and provided insurance for millions who really needed it. Granted, it is not perfect, and it either needs to be fixed or replaced by the Canadian healthcare system, but he did something fundamentally good for millions of people. Obama wasn’t perfect, he had many failures like every human has, but he can admit them. No matter what trump would like to believe, Obama created the economic turnaround that had continued for years prior to his leaving office and continues today because of the work he had done. Trump just rides his coattails. And just about every economist agrees that trump’s actions WILL destroy the economy in the end. So his supporters need to remember that and who caused it; when we all end up losing our jobs, homes, savings, and everything else all over again. Because it will happen. It’s just a matter of when. Trump’s supporters just don’t have the mental capacity to see what will come from the things he is doing. They just see now and not the consequences to come. When Obama took office nearly 10% of people were unemployed. He created 11.6 million jobs during his terms.
49
The economy has been growing for nearly a decade following the Great Recession, but it is growing at the top, for the most part. In a truly successful economy poverty rates shrink because more citizens can find work and more citizens earn enough to rise above the poverty line. Neither 44 or 45 talked about that fact because of the socialization of the idea that poverty is self-inflicted which goes back to Saint Reagan. The dissatisfaction of opportunity as the barriers to success increase will and has lead to wide-scale job actions. The state-wide strikes by public school teachers is just the beginning.
5
Obama had stated,"4% growth and manufacturing jobs are not coming back".
Obama stifled optimism among businesses and employers.
The day after the election the optimism was palpable among those folks having early morning coffee at the local restaurant. That feeling persists.. help wanted signs everywhere is tangible proof.
Obama was not responsible for the 08 crash.
Nor an he claim credit for the prosperity he predicted would not happen again.
7
@Lane, Obama had at least 3 quarters better than last quarter's 4.2% growth rate. So some of his quarters did exceed 4%. But others were in the 1.5% to 3.5% range just as has been the case under Trump. Why? In part, because our economy has become very cyclical. Trump has no further claim to making the economy grow 4% indefinitely as Obama would have but both can say that , during some short periods it is possible.
1
The fact is that the only thing that really has changed drastically after Trump took over is the one parameter that nobody is talking about any more - budget deficit and national debt. For some reason those are no longer of any interest although they are exploding at a time when they should be improving.
24
@Ivan
I find what you are observing to be way too true.
The Republicans poised themselves as fiscally responsible and then in the past year increase the national debt by (at some estimates) of 1.3 trillion dollars over 10 years. And at this point there was no indication of economic contraction. Their pose was during Mr Obama's administration. They also scared many folk over the ACA, citing death committees etc.
Then they tried to make the ACA vulnerable to dismantling by inserting difficult guidelines then forcing Mr Obama's administration to accept them.
It was a disgrace and still some(many) folk still believe that nonsense. If you have ever had to deal with medical expenses then you know what I am talking about I did and it was horrible and depressing also way too expensive.
1
@Ivan And let's not forget inflation that is just beginning to take hold under Trump's policies and wiping out almost all of the impact of rising wages under Trump.
1
@Ivan
How true! I wish someone making a TV ad from those Republicans who used to scream about budget deficit and national debt during Obama administration and play them all day.
4
You know, if Obama hadn’t prioritized 95% of the recovery wealth going into the pockets of the 1%, then maybe he could take a little more credit. But he didn’t do that, instead with his Citigroup picked Cabinet, and Tim Geitner at the helm, he made sure the banks and Wall Street were made whole at the expense of Main Street and the Middle Class.
The guy gives great speeches, (I voted for him twice) but never put in the hard work of fighting for people. In fact, he would often do just the opposite of what he espoused and inexplicably try to cut Republican-friendly deals.
5
@FXQ
It's hard to square you comment to the Affordable Care Act, over which Obama did the hard work of fighting for the people. The ACA took almost two years to pass, provided ample opportunity for GOP input, and squeezed insurance companies and raised taxes on the 1% in order to provide affordable care to people who never had health insurance before.
The results - a dramatic decline in the percentage of Americans uninsured, without any of the disasters on the overall economy predicted by every Republican - speaks for itself.
4
@FXQ
"You know, if Obama hadn’t prioritized 95% of the recovery wealth going into the pockets of the 1%, then maybe he could take a little more credit."
I wonder what percentage of the population you think is benefitting (or is going to benefit in the long run) from the current artificial prosperity?
3
@FXQ, the TARP was passed under Bush and I think that it what you are referring to with taking care of the banks. As for Obama he passed the stimulus which helped the middle class, the auto bailout which saved hundreds of thousands of middle class jobs, passed Dodd-Frank which Wall Street deterts and fought tooth and nail and started the CFPB with Elizabeth Warren's help to help middle class recover billions from banks and credit card companies. Also he raised taxes on people making over $400,000. Your analysis does not stand up to the slightest scrutiny using facts.
It is high time Obama deflates the super-narcissist ego of Trump, reminding the voters of the fact that any new administration has no choice but to build on what has gone before him.
Trumps takes credit for any success he claims to have achieved and dismisses all the ground work done by his predecessors...he is the 'greatest'!
13
@Kenell Touryan You know, there is an entire bakery in Chicago where there are Americans working now. They're replacing the illegal immigrants who had been employed there previously.
This is within the past year.
There is little that Obama was interested in doing about that sort if situation.
We got Americans working as a result of better enforcement under the current administration. Little by little can work to improve our conditions.
1
President Trump tweeted today that it's the first time in over 100 years since GDP was running higher than the unemployment rate. Of course he's clueless. The last time it happened was 2006. In 2007 the economy crashed and burned under the last Republican President.
18
@HL, Of course, for Republicans and conservatives, history is fake news.
2
Of course Obama is going to try an take credit for something that happened after his eight year Presidential term. Smart people understand that Obama, a Community Organizer, was way over his head when it came to business and the Presidency. He tried as best he could but never had the knowledge, experience, or brain power to make the right decisions and he surrounded himself with others like himself. Obama's Presidency will go down in history with two accomplishments - wasting trillions of taxpayer funds on spending initiatives, adding to inefficiency, and raising taxes in the form of healthcare.
9
The recovery didn’t happen after President Obama’s term. It happened during President Obama’s term.
This happened after:
“A buffoon could have kept the recovery going,” said Jen Psaki, who was Mr. Obama’s White House communications director, “and in fact one has so far.”
4
@RCS You cannot possibly be this obtuse. So President Obama was in office for 8 years and during that time he did nothing, nor, according to you, had the knowledge, experience or brain power to make the right decisions. But you voted for a failed white business person with 4-5 bankruptcies, who wasted trillions of dollars giving rich people a tax cut, who was fined $25M for a bogus school, who speaks like a 5 year old, who lies every time he opens his mouth, who cheated on all his wives with porn actresses, who bragged about assaulting women, who has rescinded laws that protect consumers and citizens, our environment, our air, rivers and lakes, who has cut programs for women and children but has no problem separating children from their parents and locking them up in cages and you are fine with that as long as he's white. Your hatred runs deep.
1
@J. Faye Harding Hate has nothing to do with this situation. One man paid over $20 million in taxes and the other, well, was a Community Organizer that wrote books. It is that simple.
In Florida, just before the 2008 bomb went off, anyone with eyes in her head could see an overheated economy. Construction, i.e., the much-vaunted "growth" was booming: houses and strip malls were being built everywhere at a breathtaking pace. But there was no industry to support all of that construction. Nobody had jobs that paid enough to buy the expensive houses being built, or purchase many of the goods being offered in those strip malls. A huge section of the population was working in construction and real estate. When the housing bubble burst, all of those jobs vanished. Banks shut down, so construction companies stopped getting loans, so they shut down and those jobs vanished; mortgage companies, title companies, and real estate companies shut down, and those jobs were lost. What was essentially a self-perpetuating system was broken and all of the life went out of it. The vultures who still had money swept in and bought up what was left at fire sale prices, and held on to the assets for write-offs until the economy gradually picked up steam again. They were already rich to begin with, and could afford to wait until the market turned again.
Now the same thing is happening again all over the country, and it is going to be interesting to see what happens in a year or so. When people tell you over and over that they are not making enough money to live on and that maintaining even a modest lifestyle is driving them into debt, you can bet that a bust is on the way.
50
“A buffoon could have kept the recovery going ... and in fact one has so far.”
The real problems will incur as Trump's policies on tariffs and trade take effect. This is where the impact of the tax cuts will be felt. With no ability to expand spending as production plummets, the government will face a financial crisis of huuuuuge proportions. That's when we will realize being a buffoon cannot keep things going - if that buffoon has no understanding of macro-economics and initiates policy that run counter to macro-economic principles.
11
@Perverse
That buffoon built skyscrapers all over the world, including the 4th tallest in the US, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process. hes worth billions and has his own plane as a result.
Must pale in comparison to your accomplishments, for you to have any ground to stand on calling him a buffoon.
2
@Sports Medicine With money borrowed from Russia. His son admitted it. You don't know how much he is worth or what he owes because he is hiding his tax returns. Trump doesn't own most of the buildings you brag about he leases his name to those properties. Read and learn and stop repeating Faux news propaganda.
@Sports Medicine
"4th tallest in the US" Do mean 58 story Trump Tower in New York which Trump claims has 70 floors?
And ad hominem show that you have no real argument.
Nonetheless, development using other peoples moneys (and a number of bancrupcies) show that Trump does not really understand economics. The classic example is Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City which is double the size the market could bear , leading to another spectacular bancrupcy. One in which Trump lost nothing.
I am wondering when the "development" genius will get around to actually dealing with crumbling infrastructure in the US. Short of wanting a wall, with extensive negative economic impact, Trump seems to have forgotten anything he ever knew about development.
I wish Obama got up at 3 am to tweet about his 4.6%, 4.9% and 5.1% GDP QE growth numbers (better than any under Trump so far, even though Obama inherited a wreck of an economy). That's seems to be the only way to reach closed minds. Of course many Trump loyalists will consider those GDP facts to be fake news.
6
“stalemate on Capitol Hill,”... How exactly is control of both houses of congress by the President’s own party a stalemate? You make it sound like Trump has had to overcome the same obstructionist congress that Obama had to work with for the last 6 years of his presidency.
Rank incompetence would be a better description of the Republican congressional governance.
13
It's very easy to look like an economic genius when you are putting everything on your credit cards and the bills have not yet come due. Trump is exploding the deficit, and we will be paying for his folly for years to come.
9
Everyone said at the time that Obama’s stimulus package should have been much more robust. From the “cash for clunkers” car buyback program to the insistence that infrastructure projects be “shovel ready” — giving local governments no time to prepare — the Obama recovery was anemic. Trump fueled the robust explosion of jobs and, finally, wage growth that we’re seeing today. Democrats, give the devil his due.
6
@PL
The conditions Mr Obama faced were compounded by a deadlocked government spearheaded by Republicans. Then the Republicans supposedly took control and the so called Tax Cuts turned out to be for the rich super rich and Corporations. So who really made out?
2
@Alecfinn — super rich? I wouldn’t call people who don’t own their own homes and therefore don’t itemize super rich. I think the term for them is lower income. They, including I, will benefit from the doubling of the standard deduction. Somehow they have disappeared from the Democrats’ radar when they talk about this issue. It’s the comfortable suburban middle class who will be disadvantaged by the new tax law. But that is the Democrats’ base now — they abandoned the 40% of families who don’t itemize long ago.
So glad you brought up the stimulus, because President Obama wanted a much larger stimulus. Guess who stopped him? The Republicans, of course. Sadly, when you don’t have a filibuster-proof Senate, you are at the mercy of the vultures. What they wanted, and got, was a tax cut that didn’t do anything for the economy and that is the reason that the recovery was so sluggish.
1
Peter Baker observed: "Where Mr. Obama was always measured in his descriptions of the recovery for fear of being accused of exaggerating his case or ignoring the very real pain many still felt, Mr. Trump does not bother with caveats or subtlety."
That's the problem with American Democracy. It is a contest of the better con man. Obama is not a very good salesman. Just look at how poorly they market Obama Care. His presidency owes much to the unpopularity of George W. Bush and ineptitude of his opponents.
Perhaps Obama got the message from Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's attorney. When they go low, hit them harder. Good advice to the Democrats.
2
DJT is a known dissembler and unapologetic provacateur. DJT bloviating about and exaggerating his role in the current economic conditions reflects nothing new about him or his administration. BHO getting into the who gets credit is a mistake likely to do more harm than good in the midterm elections.
As a former President, OHB will do well to speak clearly and undistractedly on the DJT administration drumbeat to institutionalize tribal identities, its fostering doubt about the US justice system and DJT's incessant whining about being a victum of imagined conspiracies.
1
Trump claims everything positive as being his accomplishment and everything bad as Obama's responsibility. These are the mad ravings of a sick delusional mind. In Truth, (Truth being something Trump will never be capable of understanding) the economy has been on an uphill climb ever since Obama's economic policies were put in place in 2009. Unfortunately the bad effects of Trump's tariffs and clumsy trade deals and the 2018 congressional tax "reform"may not be fully felt until after 2020. Will the next POTUS take credit for that? disaster?
9
If anyone wants to check the microfilm, the TImes reported that recovery of the economy from the Great Recession would be slow and steady, averaging about 2% peryear. They cited the overwhelming consensus of economists. So no one and everyone get credit. It’s like when you throw a rubber ball against the wall. Who gets credit when it bounces back?
3
Obama spent the first 4-5 years of his presidency blaming Bush for the poor economy and lack of meaningful recovery. One of the major attacks on Trump was that the US economy would collapse the day Trump was elected- the markets will crash! Pandemonium! The idea that the US economy could achieve 4%+ growth again was called, in no uncertain terms, a pipe-dream by all the "respected" economists.
Now Obama wants to claim credit for an economy that's finally improving? Such a sad little man.
4
@David Unless I am mistaken it was a bad economy. The country was poised on the brink of financial abyss. The auto makers, banks and other industries were tumbling into insolvency so I am not sure what Bush left Obama with
2
@David So for 8 years President Obama did nothing and all of a sudden the economy is booming. If the economy wasn't doing well before Trump how could it collapse? Can you tell us why? You people just DO NOT think.
1
Sure, the economy is doing well. We are worlds away from 08, and the hellish days of a decade ago economically, but did anybody feel like the English language had also just recovered some serious ground.
I had had not heard political eloquence like Obama's since, well... Obama.
Trump's bludgeoning of language, and decency has been a deep dark place in our discourse.
Intellect, humility, poetry, and grace just made a resurgence in the political discourse this weekend, and we are all richer for it.
Got get em Barak Obama, lead the charge to throw out the bum, and take all his bully friends with him.
10
I’ll take action (Trump) over pretty talk from Obama.
3
Trump is a lot of noise with very little real action. I’ll take a pragmatic and authentic President Obama over a buffoon.
3
@M Were can we buy those rose tinted glasses?
1
@M Exactly what action has Trump initiated? Tariffs? Tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers and corporations that only add to the deficit? Denuclearize North Korea?
Please give me 1
4
Billboards across the country should read: what do Herbert Hoover, George Bush 1 and George Bush 2 have in common? All Republicans who ruined US economy, caused loss of millions of jobs and did nothing to protect hard working Americans from corporate greed. What do Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have in common? All Democrats who saved the US economy from the ruin created by Republicans, cleaned up the horrors of Republican greed and incompetence, created safeguards to protect American workers and their children, left office with US economy functional and stronger, made the US a leader among nations and led Americans to embrace their greatness through the generosity of the American spirit. Democrats embrace our greatness and stop letting Republicans frame who we are through their lies and viciousness. Democrats are the party of economic prosperity for all not just the greedy few. We are the party of the American spirit of ingenuity, prosperity for all and the courage to live up to the ideals of America the beautiful with liberty and justice for all.
18
Trump's people are making a big deal out of wages rising nearly 3% over the last year. But, they ignore the impact of inflation which in now closing in on 2.5%, and rising rapidly. During Obama's tenure wage increases were lower, barely 2% per year or so. But inflation was at historic lows too, running closer to 1.5% per year. Under both REAL wages (wage increases minus inflation) are about the same. And while wages will probably rise to 4% under Trump, look for inflation to not be far behind. The Democrats should point to the new normal for inflation every time the Republican's tout wage increases. They need to show both numbers every time the R's bring up the rise in wages. With tariffs and immigration restrictions inflation is just getting started under Trump.
10
"There’s a linkage between taxes, regulation, confidence, business investment and wages,” Mr. Kudlow said. “It’s changed the thinking of people.” This is probably the first and only think Mr. Kudlow has said that I agree with but probably not for the reasons he would think. Trump cut taxes on the rich and will shift that burden to the middle and lower income groups over time via higher rates and proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (the first two of which we pay for via payroll taxes). As his minions slash their way through regulations, who will insure that the water we drink is clean, the air we breathe is not polluted and the products that we buy are safe to use for the purposes intended? Sadly, many (not all for sure) businesses have a poor record in these areas and are only compliant due to fear of fines and bad publicity from government interventions. As the budget deficit created by the tax cuts balloons and business cut back on investment because they can't figure out the latest Trump trade war, confidence will fall and wages will stagnate as business slows. There, see Larry? It is all connected.
8
@Dave DiRoma Kudlow still thinks he is on TV instead of in charge of the real economy.
@Dave DiRoma
Regulations are often incomplete or poorly designed but due to our political system they are usually motivated by real needs that markets could not address with minimal success. Taxes have always been too high but the services they fund always well received.
To rich people like Kudlow anyone unable to support themselves on capital gains, dividends, and interest are annoying money sinks for the truly worthy people like himself. Money is too precious to waste on unproductive people. They don't see any economy as a whole as part of the society of human beings which includes everybody. But the rich would be a lot poorer living in a world of impoverishment, they need a society of well off people in which to be able to live free and enjoy their wealth freely. Gated communities for the rich in poor countries is a life in a gilded cage.
Meanwhile when Obama was in power the Times was saying[this.](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/opinion/krugman-a-permanent-slump.htm...
2
A politician taking credit for something he/she shouldn't !! It's no wonder Obama is shocked and this is NYT front page news.
Obama is out of office. Why does he still matter????
3
One thing seems obvious. History has passed Obama by. He had his chance to make good on his vision of social justice and to teach the banks a lesson after the financial collapse. Instead he made a deal with them and didn’t even jail a single bank executive for their crimes. As usual, he preferred playing it safe and never took his big chance which would have made him truly great instead of arguably so.
Now he’s come out of moth balls to play a losing numbers game with Trump arguing about which year the economy turned around, how long it lasted, the percentage of unemployed, the amount of the gross national product, etc., etc. If you have to explain it, you never had it.
The tragedy is that he could have been so great. Coulda shoulda woulda.
3
@Ed If you have to explain it, it's because an orange twit in the Oval Office is spreading lies about you to save his own derriere (look it up, OT).
1
"Trump Claims Credit for the..." and then simply fill in any good news happening anywhere, period. What I fail to understand is why anyone pays any heed to anything this congenital liar says, ever. Literally nothing Trump says or tweets can possibly be viewed as reliable. The man is flailing away on Twitter this morning, talking about Bob Woodward being a liar. When the world's most profligate liar accuses a man with a decades long, hard-earned reputation for honesty of lying, does the cosmos chuckle a little at the impending doom of humankind?
4
No one seeks credit more than Donald Trump. No one cries out more than Donald Trump about being treated unfairly.
If the roles were reversed and it was Obama that inherited the improving economy you all know that Trump would be tweeting how he was responsible for it and how unfairly he was being treated for not getting enough credit.
If the economy improves so that it is robust and continues into the term of the next president you KNOW he will be taking credit for it long after his term expires.
But he believes, as he did in business, that only he knows the answers, only he has the solutions, only he has an effect.
6
Mr. Obama lives in a fantasy land.
All anyone needs to do is review the actions and posture of the Federal Reserve. Things were so bad under Obama that the Fed had to take policy measures never used before. The mainstay being Quantitative Easing (QE) where the Fed bought around $4.2T (yes, trillion) of US Govt debt over the years of the Obama administration. As rates were already at zero, this was the only available offset to the crushing expansion of the regulatory environment that flourished under Obama. In short, the economy was getting smothered by regulations and the Fed’s QE program become the economy’s life support system.
Enter Mr. Trump, tax reform and regulation roll back. I could cite lots of improving stats, but those are well known. The real proof is in what the Fed is doing. Well, rates are rising and QE is being wound down. There is no better proof source and arbiter of the difference between the Trump economy and the Obama economy.
Obama and his administration were a wet blanket on the economy. Trump has given the economy a fighting chance, long may it last.
3
@Rob Roy You seem to think the only thing that matters is "free markets." You forget, or don't care, that there are also human beings involved here, namely, American workers who are beginning to get crushed under the Trumpian tariffs and trickle-down economics.
Yes, there are jobs, but salaries are going nowhere. People pay outrageous amounts of money for health insurance and prescription drugs. Americans are working longer hours than ever, including many who must work 2 or 3 jobs to stay alive, and most Americans are only 2 paychecks away from homelessness. They depend on credit, not savings, to float them in the event of an emergency.
Trump and the GOP have given no indication that they care at all about people beyond suckering them for votes.
5
@Rob Roy It will last until the temporary tax cuts on the middle class are taken away in a few years, to the utter surprise of those who didn't bother with the details of the "Huge Tax Reform."
1
@Rob Roy The deficit under President Obama was created to bail out what the Republicans did with the economy under President Bush. The increase in debt caused by Mr. Trump was caused by his give away to the rich so corporations could buy back stock and keep the market up for another few years.
1
Keep talkin' Obama,, that's what you're good at!
Meanwhile, Trump and the Republican congress passed a Tax Act that is very specifically designed to motivate multinationals to locate their operations in the US. The efforts being made to promote free and far trade for and deregulation of US businesses are moving the economy in that direction as well. As such, the stock market, which is a relatively unbiased indicator of investor's confidence in the future, has been rising steeply under Trump. The Dem's nostalgia for the malaise days, which provided justification for their expansion of government social programs, are misplaced and the voters have and will continue to see that as overall prosperity continues to grow.
3
What happened to the claims by certain people less than two years ago that the unemployment numbers were cooked? That they were "as high as 30-40%"? Can't quite recall who it was who stated that. No longer the case apparently though.
8
The deficit bubble will eventually burst, leaving the country bankrupt because the shortfall in tax revenue will kill us.
And still, in this great mess, we have an enormous health care problem, a crumbling infrastructure, and stagnant wages. None of these middle class problems seem to bother the rich men who decide for us whether or not we have a "recovery."
4
@trump basher
Why should they? If you have enough you can ignore what the common folk have to endure as it will not affect you.
1
This is a guy who obtained a degree (I guess) from Wharton, and should know something about the complexity of economic cycles, not to mention the impact of financial fraud and overreach (2008 bank collapses). It is utterly laughable that he would take credit for an economic arc that started in 2009 and reached its current height before his tax cuts set in. Trump would claim credit for the seasons, or the weather turning from rain to clear, if he could get away with it. (And with his base, he probably could!)
6
There is only one president that added 1 TRILLION dollars to the deficit to give himself and the rest of the 1% a tax cut and increase interest rates for the rest of us.
20
" ... Donald Trump delivered the American Dream."
Yeah, to the 0.001%, Wall Street, union busters and Russian oligarchs. The US working stiff? Not so much.
I watched the value of my IRA more than double during the long slow climb from 2009 - 2016. It is about flat since then.
6
@Steve Exactly. I've lost money in my 401k since this madman has been in the WH.
@Steve Interesting and good for you. The Citi shares (that I didnt gave enough insider knowledge to unload at the best time) are still in the tank. Funny how nicely Citi got treated by Obama's administration, isn't it?
Trump's boasting about the economy reminds me of the guy who was born on third base and is convinced he hit a triple. Trump is all hat and no cattle.
5
Trump's answer to the growing economy Obama provided was a trillion-dollar tax giveaway to the wealthiest, while our infrastructure, public education and health care wither on the vine.
If this is Trump's "success", I'd hate to see failure. Which we no doubt will.
6
@David
Your words; "...the growing economy Obama provided..."
Can you cite one act/action taken by Obama that had a positive impact on the economy?
@David Succinctly stated in one sentence. Thank you.
1
Without the infusion of fiat money by the Fed during the 2008 financial crisis, businesses fail and the economy limps along. Without last year's tax cuts businesses don't buy back their own stocks and the market does no where near as well as it has. Both parties and presidents are proud of their chickens at the county fair, what happens when either or both come home to roost?
1
Trump won't want the economy when we going careening off a cliff again as a result of deregulation and misspent fiscal stimulus. Welcome to an era of high inflation, high interest rates, and zero wage growth. All we need now is an external shock to crash the stock market. Goodbye retirement savings. The picture will be complete then. As things currently stand, I give us maybe 2 years if we're lucky. The only question is how hard is the landing going to be. I wonder who Trump's going to blame when the fall happens. You know it won't be himself. This is the president where the buck stops anywhere else.
5
The president has only a modest impact on the economy--until there's a crisis. President Obama started his first term with a gargantuan crisis under way, and while many of us hate some of the choices he made in addressing that crisis, address it he did, decisively and intelligently, and this incredible string of economic gains began, and was sustained for 8 years and beyond.
President Trump, by contrast, has been the luckiest president on record--on all fronts, not just the economy. And while I hope it stays that way, I'm not optimistic.
47
Obama brought the economy back from a profoundly deep hole while trying to prepare for a more resilient one by addressing health care, replacing fossil fuels, and improving regulations where they seemed to be needed. He did this against an opposition that just did not want any of these efforts to succeed. When Trump was elected his goal was to undo all of it and to get back to the Republicans old policies of cut taxes and cut regulations and the consequences will be paradise. But the fact is that it takes 8 years to recover from recessions caused by financial markets crashing. Trump inherited a recovered economy.
However, the business community is much more willing to take risks and invest both because the economy is recovered and because Trump cut taxes and is trying remove the constraints of regulations. Businesses are jumping in as they would not while Obama was President. But if anyone pays attention, business firms and conservative politicians have no means to make the economy grow fast enough to include all. They are creating a status quo that ensures more and more new wealth goes to themselves and is not shared, an economy that leaves out more and more people as a few become rich beyond even their most extravagant wants. Meanwhile, the Trump tax cut is going to increase the national debt by a trillion dollars. The Republicans will not raise taxes but they will try to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and public education.
49
@Casual Observer And if Democrats take over the government and raise taxes, at some future point Republicans will use that to campaign on; the average person will forget why Democrats had to raise taxes (or let grandma live on cat food with no SS, then die because that diet led to medical problems with no Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare). We've seen this cycle over and over again: Republicans trash the economy and the environment for short term booms; Democrats save it but are forced to tax and spend to do so; Republicans complain about high taxes and spending (though red states don't tax but spend money shifted from blue states) and get back in power for tax cuts and slashed regulations, trashing the economy; rinse and repeat.
Thing is, it's more of a spiral than a cycle. The swings get bigger. Sooner or later, the downturn will blow a hole in the world economy that might cause something apocalyptic. Mad Max here we come?
2
Economies aren't really that agile. Businesses make investment decisions based upon projections of growth so that the investments in 2018 were likely decided upon and made in 2015 or 2016. And those were only agreed upon due to better economic data in the prior years.
The two things that the Trump administration has done is Tax cuts and deregulation. Most of the deregulation that have been discussed were announced in 2017 and only recently have been implemented. There's also numerous court challenges so the idea that companies are making big investments while the outcome is in question is laughable. Businesses don't like uncertainty. The tax cuts likely had the biggest effect but that's like drinking a energy drink instead of sleeping--it's a short term boost but wont' be lasting. Companies aren't using their windfalls to invest or increase wages; they're buying back stocks which inflates the market.
The increased national deficit and debt will have long term consequences on interest rates. The tariffs have already had impacts on some industries--essentially a mixed bag. The uncertainty of Canadian participation in the revised NAFTA could be disastrous to the auto and aircraft industries. The trade war with China is having an impact on ag prices, especially soybeans. Likewise the immigration crackdown will likely have cause rising prices for domestic agriculture. Like in 2006/7 there are storm clouds on the horizon, but no one wants to pay attention.
6
But what about debt? A rise in insurance premiums adds to the GDP, but is it good news? Inflation generally adds to the GDP, but is it good news without the benefit of rising income?
Asking for a friend.
9
Trump's selective memory (or forgetfulness) is nothing if not entertaining. And the news I heard on NPR this morning does not bode well for taxpayers come April. The problem is that employers are taking less tax out of our checks (THAT'S the tax cut 'present' from Trump) right now, and NPR says more people will still be owing the IRS next year because of it. While the economy is doing well, and Trumps math 'geniuses' are using their own adjusted formulas for wage increase measurement (making it look better than it really is), nothing hides the fact that we are in unheard-of national debt territory, the 1 trillion-and-growing kind. What with all this and careless deregulation it's hard not to grit one's teeth in anticipation of 2007 recession repeat that will make the last one seem like child's play. Sooner or later, this bubble will burst, as will Trump's chances in 2020. Now, if we could only 'adjust' the amendment language so Barack could run again.
23
Excellent article, but it should also have brought up the business decisions taken three and four years ago under Obama's steadily improving economy that Trump is now benefiting from.
19
I would credit neither president but the independent Federal Reserve for keeping rates low for an extraordinarily long period of time. Cheap money works wonders! Republicans and Democrats can heehaw all they want to . It's all about the Fed! Obama and Trump both have no clue of this.
8
@Biil R The problem with very low rates for a long time is that the average person could not put money in a savings account and make interest. Big business has record high debt as a result and if the you know what hits the fan the public will once again be asked, well maybe not asked, forced would be more accurate, to take the loss, in the throat. And then you have the republicans doing a job on Social Security and the future for the people who actually work, or what I call "do the heavy lifting", get the shaft. No kiss, no apology.
1
As a result of Trump putting the brakes on the badly abused so caller skilled worker visas, at least adding better review of applications, means that my continued employment is somewhat more assured.
Considering the Democrat promise to increase these harmful visas, I am pleased that things are better.
5
I suspect that the crackdown on illegal immigration will have a similar impact on low wage jobs -- that is, more opportunities for Americans.
2
@Margo
AMEN
Obama's Socialist agenda needs hardworking highly skilled self-sacrificing contributing and educated people like ourselves to shakedown. Where will the money come from if they send all the jobs overseas?
For goodness sake, encourage America's kids to aspire to the the jobs of the future. We don't need any community organizers
2
This reminds me of the time when Giuliani did much to clean up the City and his critics preferred to give the credit to David Dinkens, our 4th worst mayor.
9
@MIKEinNYC
Thank goodness for Giuliani, who was radical at the time when he told people, "No, you cannot urinate on the sidewalk."
2
Trump is riding the wave of Obama's Economy. It takes at least 1.5-2 years or more to change an economy. You don't get elected and after a year or 1.5 years get to claim an economy. Obama brought up back from Bush's 8 years of destruction to our economy and debt.
What is always astounding to me is the fact that those in the deep south buy into the GOP, who is not there for their best interests. I then read a book by a prominent historian, Nancy MacLean: "Democracy In Chains". I urge everyone to read this book since it explains how there have been years of folks like the Koch brothers who have degraded our democracy by feeding the minds of those in our country and turning them against their own best interests for their own agenda.
17
While having never been a fan of Obama (great speeches, little to show), in this case Obama is largely corrrect. To be clear, much of the blame for the crash was down to the GW Bush admin's lax regulation of the financial sector, but in the closing months of Bush's term, many things done in the crisis were continued and built on by Obama. That is truly ancient history now. Importantly, over time Obama deserves the credit for where the real economy is today. Even if Trump has done great incredible things, and that is up for debate, they would not really be felt for some time. In this case Obama deserves the credit, Trump hardly any. The point about Trump is that he follows the old Soviet strategy of "Saying the same lie over and over again and louder and louder, eventually people will think its true. This started with the birther conspiracy nonsense, then Crooked Hillary, I am the greatest smartest president ever, a genius...........
.......................................... Of course one would expect to hear all this stuff from the Mayor of Crazytown!
20
@Niall Firinne...."Even if Trump has done great incredible things, and that is up for debate, they would not really be felt for some time.".......In 8 years under Obama the budget deficit was reduced by $800 billion dollars. In two years under Trump the budget deficit has increased by $250 billion dollars and is projected to be more than $1000 billion dollars by 2020. The later is in no way sustainable requiring either a drastic tax increase or a drastic decrease in Federal spending ( Social Security, medicare, etc.). Let's see how that plays in Peoria.
6
@Niall Firinne Well, the speeches where Obama exhorts and preaches were never my thing either. I remember thinking those were the ones where I was going to see my interests stamped on.
It’s not hard to believe Trump is riding the wave President Obama initiated. He is known for his short attention span. He fell asleep during the speech. That’s the first time I ever believed anything he has said. His own people doubt his abilities.
21
@Elly. I think a lot of other five-year-olds probably fell asleep listening to an hour-long speech by a grown-up. Not enough pictures. Too many words and complete sentences.
A warm welcome back to you, President Obama. And thank you.
34
@Kathy McAdam Hahn
Sure, "thank you" Obama for sending my coworkers jobs overseas. Thank you for the stress and thank you for my coworkers with health issues, including nervous breakdowns. Thanks for soaring health care premiums which mean you only get actual health care if you don't work.
"Thanks" a ton
and "thanks" to all those who continue his "legacy"
2
@James
I understand your frustration, but sending jobs overseas started many, many years prior to Obama's tenure. Same is true of health care insurance costs - double digit rate rises started in the late 90s/early 2000s.
The booming economy most certainly did not start on Obama's watch. Obama taking credit for the booming economy is like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise. The American people know that.
Anyway, keep it up Mr. Obama, keep crowing about something you had nothing to do with, keep giving us the old Obama lectures, keep reminding people just why you and your policies were soundly rejected in 2016.
8
@jaco....keep reminding people just why you and your policies were soundly rejected in 2016. ......You maybe forgot that Clinton out polled Trump by 3 million votes.
4
@jaco What booming economy? All the statistics show it is improving at the same rate as when Obama was in office.
@jaco
Trump's failures began with repeal & replace and that wall Mexico would pay for...It's unconscionable that he talks up the current economy as if he had anything to do with it because he didn't. On the contrary because as soon as Trump took office, his sabotage began by removing us from trade agreements without bothering to renegotiate, implementing tariffs that manipulate multiple markets and further isolate us from trade, by adding $Trillions of unnecessary debt that limits economic response and threatens our nation’s security.
1
What is especially amusing about Trump's endless boasts about "his" economic growth is his fixation on a non-existent relationship of that growth to his orgy of wanton deregulation (better known as vandalism).
27
“But former President Barack Obama finds all the Trumpian chest-thumping more than a little grating, given that the “booming” started on his watch.”
There was no booming under Obama. Only the limpest recovery in history. Trump is responsible for the boom now, despite the NYT (Krugman) predicting an immediate huge recession the day after the election.
7
Also, yes, when you invest a ton in the economy, it will grow. Trump did that with his tax cuts and we are seeing the benefits.
All the "deficit hawks" are silent on the long term impact to the national debt.
Trmp's real impact to the economy starts around now, and will last for a year it two after he leaves office. Let's see how it goes.
1
Wages are stagnant, workers have less power. The economy may be booming, but where is the prosperity for all?
19
@Mabb
Before wages can rise, the "slack" in the economy has to be removed. This occurs though increased productivity and employment. When the economy hits full capacity, slack disappears. Wages rise.
One big drawback of the Obama economy was too much slack and nothing being done about it except at the Fed.
There may be some short-term benefit to the economy from the Trump's ill-advised tax cuts. Long-term they're a disaster. Future generations will pay. Smaller safety net, lack of health care, less government investing in energy, infrastructure, medicine, science - all the essential things we used to expect in an advanced society.
America's role as world leader is over. We may never recover. And the people whose fault it is will tell us how great things are with their last breath. (Which, for Trump, should be in prison.)
33
Perhaps if Obamacare had done a better job of controlling the narrative while President we would not have the con man in office now. Over the last decade Obama and the Democrats did a very poor job of promoting their economic successes and an even poorer job pointing out the dastardly political acts of the GOP which have been occurring for over 20 years. And now we have one of their key political operatives heading to the Supreme Court. At this point the Republicans have revealed themselves as amoral hypocrites and hopefully we will see results in the ballot boxes, that is if people get to exercise their vote properly.
12
@E Holland The GOP is so profoundly dishonest most regular people can’t believe their own eyes and ears.
14
@E Holland
No, this is not true. The Obamacare narrative sold to Americans was false. When they started to see the impact of it, they rejected Obama in that midterm.
Obamacare was terrible for everyone over the subsidy threshold. They saw their out-of-pocket costs and premiums skyrocket and medical options (ex., doctors, hospitals, etc.) decrease.
It's time for Obama's supporters to come to terms with Obamacare's actual results. It really helped the approximately 80% who went on Medicaid, but placed the costs burden on everyone who had to pay full price.
@Steve Bolger Maybe because they have been instructed not to. "Truth is not Truth"...
1
Given Trump's track record with the Truth, I doubt 100% of anything he says.
Instead I'll pay attention to the economists and historians (as quoted in this article) to provide an accurate accounting of how our economy is doing today compared with other years.
Trump's fawning admirers, on the other hand, refuse to question - or stand up to - his assertions. My hope is that these folks will start to wake up to the realities of Trump's behind-the-curtain shenanigans.
20
Yes, Trump is taking too much credit. But Obama is too.
People act as if a President McCain would have just sat idly by and let the economy fall off the cliff. He too would have staffed his administration with Wall Street apologists. He too would have saved Wall Street on the backs of Main Street. On a McCain watch, just like on Obama's watch, 90%+ of the recovery would have gone to the 1%.
So what exactly are we giving Obama credit for?
4
@G.Janeiro For being President? McCain wasn't president. Connect the dots.
1
I expected the economy to improve when republicans increased the national debt by 2 trillion dollars. It's like magic! We can spend the money of future generations before they are even born. Us baby boomers have buried the next two generation in debt, but we're not done yet. Let's boost the economy even more by spending the money of Americans who will not be born until the 22nd century. It's funny money. An unlimited credit card that doesn't come do until after we're dead.
13
Our children will not thank us one bit. A president who gave his rich friends money while placing generations to come in debt. Much like the businesses he ran into the ground. Great businessman? Really?
14
If we were currently in an economic downturn what would Obama be saying? That it was his recession?
5
@Jesse James
To quote SCOTUS nominee, that is a hypothetical that can't be commented on.
3
I am so glad Barack Obama is out of office and that President Trump was elected. If the economy had been as robust as Obama claims when he left office, Hillary Clinton would be president today.
The voters choose Mr. Trump because many in middle America had been ignored by Barack Obama and were struggling financially. President Trump promised to create jobs and cut taxes so they would see more money in their paychecks. They took a chance with Mr. Trump and one that paid off. They are once again confident in America and with their station in life. If the economy continues to do as well as we see it doing currently, Mr. Trump will see four more years in office. The future looks bright for the US thanks to President Trump.
18
@WPLMMT.......The recent increase in jobs and the improvement in the economy pretty much follows a straight line of growth that was established under the Obama Administration and has continued under Trump.
1
I’m impressed with your ability to take a flawed premise and transform it into justification for your president. Hillary didn’t lose because Obama did a poor job stewarding the economy.
If you had read the article—and many other sources—you would have seen that there’s fairly broad consensus that the economy did well in Obama’s time.
Although trump is insisting that what you’re seeing and reading is not the truth (unless he or Fox is saying or tweeting it), he’s wrong.
@WPLMMT Well, is this is what you believe that good for you. President Obama saved the nation's economy, whether you want to accept that fact or not. And, he did it without one ounce of assistance, cooperation, or help from the Republicans who were determined to let the Black, smart, cool President fail. He saved the auto industry. He brought us protections for consumers, the environments, students, and banking regulations.Oh, and access to health care for millions of Americans who now love it and live in fear of losing it. Of course, all of this is regarded as anti-business. I view it as as protecting the lower and working classes. His adminstration's biggest failure was on the PR front-not touting their accomplishments. But, maybe that was because they were too busy doing the work to make this country a sane and better place to live.
No one seems to notice that the Republican congress dramatically limited the Obama administrations' ability to continue to push growth in the later years of his presidency. It's basic Keynesian stimulus. Obama wanted to do it in a way that would have benefited the middle and below, Trump is doing it in a way that benefits the top 1%. The aggregate impact is probably not that different which segment of the population benefits. But the Trump approach exacerbates already historically high levels of income inequality, which will probably have dire political and economic consequences.
70
@Rich
"They wouldn't let him."
Americans gave the GOP a majority in Congress in the last midterms, so the "they" you are referring to are American voters.
6
@AACNY And they re-elected Obama by a wide margin.
@AACNY .... Uh, sorry, but in 2012 the Democratic Party candidates had 1.4 million more votes than the Republicans for congress, so if you mean “Elections rigged by Republicans through gerrymandering “ when you are talking about how the will of the people elected resistance to Obama’s agenda, you are right.
2
I follow this stuff (the economy) quite closely. Here's the thing that people need to understand. Trump and the Republican Party are riding on Obama's coattails.
Remember back in 2008 when the economy was collapsing because of the lax oversight on the banks and mortgage lender of the Bush administration and particularly Greenspan? It was successive Republican Administrations that created the problem. To their credit at the very end DID take responsibility for the crisis it created and did everything they could to solve the problem.
But during the height of the crisis when Hank Paulson went to Congress to tell them he needed $700 Billion to rescue the economy from a very dire situation it was Republicans who voted the bill down. Subsequently the stock market fell 700 points in panic selling.
It was also Obama and the Democrats who saved the Car industry by rescuing a very important industry which would have wiped out the north eastern economy had they caved into the Republicans who wanted them to let them go bankrupt.
What has Trump done? Sure, he inherited a robust very economy which he claimed "was a mess". Don't believe him, he's a proven liar.
What Trump is responsible for is pouring gas on a fire by stimulating an already hot economy with huge tax cuts to the wealthy.
But at what future cost? Trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
Don't be fooled by a conman and a liar. Trump has very little to do with today prosperity.
74
"set in motion by Mr. Obama’s extraordinary economic interventions early in his presidency."
What interventions? Can anyone point to any Obama policy or directive that could be credited with todays growing economy? Or even the economy during Obama's tenure?
7
@Sports Medicine "During his first two years in office, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress compiled a substantial record of policy accomplishment—the economic stimulus, bringing the financial system back from the brink of collapse, rescuing two automakers, universal health care, sweeping reform of financial regulation, and major changes in student loan programs, among many others."www.brookings.edu/research/president-barack-obamas-first-two-years-policy-accomplishments-political-difficulties/
4
You’re joking, right? TARP, saving Detroit, etc.The list is long and deep.
3
@Sports Medicine
Bailing out General Motors doesn’t count, huh?
7
Amazing, the credit to be earned from wanton deregulation!
7
@Justin
Happened before and then years later the crash.
1
@Justin
"Too much of a good thing". This describes the regulatory burden placed on businesses under Obama.
There would have been no viable economy in the USA unless, at the height of the recession in 2008, Obama fixed it and nurtured it until he handed it off to the birther-in-chief.
The more important question to ask is the following: How has Trump's and his family's wealth grown since the tax cut?
21
@chickenlover
Everything Obama tried failed, the $trillion stimulus, the cash for clunkers, everything failed. All Obama did was delay an economic recovery creating misery. Perhaps you think that the attempted destruction of industries deemed politically incorrect was good economic policy, despite the economic violence it inflicted on millions?
1
@jaco.......Everything Obama tried failed, the $trillion stimulus, the cash for clunkers, everything failed.....How do you know it failed? Based on what facts? Whether you like it or not the economy and jobs grew steadily during the Obama years, and the annual budget deficit was reduced by $800 billion dollars. Under Trump the annual budget deficit has already increased by $250 billion dollars while improvement in jobs and the economy have continued on a straight line.
1
A couple of things. Of course Obama is responsible for the broad state of the economy - something achieved despite the blanket opposition of Republicans, who united in spite rather than logic to hamper the country’s recovery from the worst financial crisis in 80 years. And of course throwing kerosene on a fire causes a temporary surge - that’s the impact of tax cuts (fiscal stimulus) on an already expanding economy.
One thing that’s totally omitted here, though, is the partisan effect. When Obama left office, a large majority of Republicans declared the economy to be in poor shape. A day later with Trump in charge - with the same economy and no policies enacted - they declared it to be strong. Apparently, despite decades of evidence to the contrary, Republicans cling to the belief only Republicans are capable of presiding over a strong economy.
What will now be interesting is the blame game when Trump’s bubble inevitably bursts through the combination of needless/reckless spending, trade ignorance, and global anxiety over his incompetence. He may find that trying to steal credit from his predecessor is a double-edged sword.
27
Just yesterday Pence stated on national television that President Obama's economy was one of the worst in history.
Let's face it, we can't believe one thing the members of Trump's administration say. Every statement is a lie.
33
The real hero here is George W. Bush, who's brave, an ultimately very profitable, action in keeping the Banks from failing gave Obama a solid base to recover on.
6
You mean, like, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, Countrywide, and Merrill Lynch? Those guys?
11
Thank You Mr Obama for speaking up.
So few remember what actually happened in that recession. Just before Mr Obama was inaugurated the economy crashed. The recession came after what seemed to be a huge economic surge.
There was a run on the money from the government, Mr Obama stopped the issuance of money without signature and a repayment plan. The Mr Obama enacted economic recovery by regulations to stop inappropriate business dealings from education to bad lending practices including consumer protection.
Eight years later the economy was recovered (Mr Obama did not take the full responsibility for the recovery) during the past eight years the Republicans were screaming Mr Obama was ruining the nation and irresponsibility increasing the national debt in spite of economic measures saying the opposite.
Now we have a POTUS who increases the national debt deregulated some of the things put in place to protect most of us and has been crowing about the current economic climate. Mr Obama did enact the economic recovery and tried to protect and make healthcare available for more folk than ever. I was offended when Mr Obama was called a bad man who didn't do enough for folk.
I am pleased that Mr Obama is talking about his accomplishments as I learned early that you cannot fix everything neither could your predecessors. Instead of criticism just work on fixing what you see as wrong or can be improved remembering the person following you will inherit what you couldn't get done.
14
“A buffoon could have kept the recovery going,” said Jen Psaki, who was Mr. Obama’s White House communications director, “and in fact one has so far.”This is so true. I always be surprised that a President is claiming the success for the recovery of the economy by adding trillions of debts to the deficit already in place. Future generations will be pleased.....
23
Without debate the economy is doing great, whether it started with Mr. Obama or not. Why break something that isn't broken. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama did break the Middle East, which President Trump is in the process of fixing. Lets keep it going with President Trump.
7
@Saints Fan Who started the war in Iraq again? While I don't agree with all of Obama's policies and choices regarding the Middle East, it certainly didn't start with him.
The complete amnesia perpetuated by Republicans never ceases to amaze me.
11
@MBL
Bush did. Of course the middle east is much wider than Iraq itself. However, as you say, Obamas decision were not always the best, so he takes responsibility as well. This goes to my original point, Trump is trying to fix it.
Um...not sure how old you are, but it was Obama’s predecessor who sent American troops into Iraq and Afghanistan while promising the American people it would be a ‘cakewalk’ .
2
And when, inevitably, the economy tanks because Donald Trump’s the trade and tariffs roulette wheel stops spinning, both he and Larry Kudlow will “blame it all on Obama.”
I would much rather have a president who stewards an improving economy—regardless of how modest it is—than a charlatan squawker claiming every credit for the modest progress that he walked into.
And I seriously doubt that the Jobs Tax Cuts Act of 2017 is boosting consumer confidence. Every economic indicator that I have seen does not point to or even promise the “turbocharged” excitement that Trump’s people are claiming.
The economy, as this article states, is largely driven by forces beyond any president’s control or policies. But, as president, Mr. Obama was attentive to trends in the economies of other countries as well as particular industries here. Without any help or advice from Mitch “one-term president” McConnell, President Obama, nevertheless sought to invigorate an economy on life support. He rescued the automotive industry when Republicans were content to let it die—and then blame him for W’s two wars disasters and tax cuts for the rich—anything with which to scapegoat Mr. Obama.
It’s an intellectually dishonest appraisal of his eight years in office. Trump, by contrast, has tried to fool Americans into thinking that this recent good news is all his—and Republicans in Congress are quick to support him—chiefly because they delivered the tax cuts their real bosses—shadow money—demanded they do.
27
Obama isn't grandstanding, he's appealing to his base - the majority of the country - to motivate them to vote. Republicans took Congress in 2010 because 2/3's of Democrats didn't vote. He's reminding them of his administration, the days of the gradual recovery from the disastrous previous president's immorality. He's also reminding them of what a scandal-free, in-control president was like.
51
According to Gallup, Obama had an average disapproval rating over his entire second term of 49%. Half the country.
Most of that was because of his handling of the economy which hollowed out the middle class.
Perhaps on paper or in his mind, the "recession ended" sometime or other during his term, but nobody noticed. They were too busy trying to keep their heads above water.
2
@Reva Cooper Actually, Republicans won the 2010 midterms largely because Obama agreed to negotiate and signed on to renew the Bush tax cuts, including the repeal of estate taxes for the very wealthy, which were due to expire in 2012, in exchange for some piddling concessions on unemployment compensation.
He was a great POTUS, but he was too weak to stomp out the evil.
2
It’s commonplace that a President is accorded responsibility for the economy beginning one year after election since, before then, it’s the last fiscal year of his predecessor, so Trump is right.
Obama had little to do with the economic recovery. First, the initial policy response to the Great Recession was TARP, enacted in the Bush administration. Then, to his credit, in 2009, Obama had a stimulus, roughly equal in size to TARP. However, economists generally agree its effects petered out by 2011, as is typical of Keynesian stimuluses historically.
More important than both of those combined, Bernanke (a Bush appointment) launched WE, a multi-trillion cash infusion in late 2010. The economy generally rode QE’s back into 2013 when a state of normal economic activity was reached.
Fourth, all net increase in nonresidential business investment in Obama’s first 6 years came from fracking - hardly something he can take credit for. Rather, after 2010, Obama regulatory initiatives, plus the ACA’s 30-hour and 50-worker thresholds, plus the 2013 tax rate restoration, generally muffled economic activity outside the Beltway.
So I give little credit to Obama for the economy. He just happened to be in the right building while other forces were driving the economy forward. It’s preposterous to think that a guy with no prior private sector experience, sermonizing about fair shares and tying businesses up in paperwork, somehow stimulated economic growth.
9
Should have been “QE” not “WE.
@Mark T
It's even more ridiculous that a man with six bankruptcies under his belt has anything whatsoever to do with this current last gasp of economic bubble.
We are becoming a nation of billionaires and serfs. The last of the serfs have finally gotten a job. A minimum wage job that can't even pay the rent. My portfolio, however, is doing quite fine, for the time being anyway.
That's the disgrace, and I'm ashamed of my incredibly stupid country for not understanding a bit of it.
10
@Mark T: However true some of this may be (and I think little is), it still doesn't excuse Trump's not only taking all the credit for himself, but also grotesquely attacking Obama's role . . . not to mention his own fake news, fake numbers (that flipped the day he took over), grandstanding, etc, etc.
If he can't at least recognize shared credit, he truly is a side show barker masquerading as a leader.
This is a fair and balanced article. But let's remember that Trump has only been in office for 1.5 years. We are seeing some impact on the economy from the tax cuts and deregulation, but let's remember that such policies have resulted in long term disasters after Hoover, Reagan, Bush II and others who tried them. Finally, let's not forget that Obama took over an economy in tatters while Trump jumped on an 8 year growth economy bandwagon.
37
@Jack Smith. I'm still waiting for someone to persuasively demonstrate how any completed deregulation has stimulated an overall economy that is essentially the momentum and inertia of the Obama administration's sensible, patient rebuilding efforts. Rule making, whether to regulate or deregulate, has a considerable delay in proposals, public comment periods, decisions, and implementation, all before any effect beyond mere anticipation can occur. This inept, corrupt crew talks a lot, but what completely implemented loosening of regulations can be correlated to specific economic growth?
It's also too early to conclude that the tax cuts have done anything beyond goosing some corporate bottom lines and stock prices, which then skew generalized economic indicators without much real-world effect on average Americans.
The trouble with pouring gas on a fire is that you need more and more gas to sustain it, and it can easily flare out of control from the artificial stimulation. It's ominous that wages are lagging behind inflationary trends that are just starting.
19
The economy is awesome—for the rich. Trump delivered tax cuts that primarily benefited corporations and the rich. Instead of investing in workers, big businesses are buying back stock and paying higher dividends. Trump is borrowing trillions to create short-term economic growth. Meanwhile, unemployment is low but workers’ wages remain stagnant. How many people have to moonlight driving an Uber or stocking boxes at Walmart to make ends meet?
184
One of the things that make it so very hard to acknowledge a positive role played by Trump in many things is his need to trash everyone else (especially Obama) on his way to claiming credit for his gains. It is never enough for him to say that someone else did good things and he/we have built on them. It must always be that the guy(s) before were terrible failures, disasters, and he, Trump, is better than anyone in history. His comment that he "inherited a mess" economically was pure fiction. The person who truly inherited a mess was Mr. Obama, but he never said that or blamed others - just got to work doing what needed to be done .
Then, too, with deficit busting tax cuts the chickens will some day come home to roost. Ditto for the de-regulation which will both set the country back decades environmentally and, sooner or later harm ordinary working stiffs by disempowering them in the workplace handing all the cards back to corporations and Trump friends & donors who run them.
426
@Anne-Marie Hislop
Job creation:
January 2017 – August 2018: 3,842,000
January 2015 – August 2016: 4,300,000
Difference:
Current administration: -458,000
Source:
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National) - 1-Month Net Change
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001?output_view=net_1mth
Projection:
At the rate so far, at the end of the current administration 1,100,000 fewer jobs will have been created than the number created during the previous one.
@Anne-Marie Hislop Yup. Trump has brought the return of the robber barons, 21st century style, with some of them right inside the federal government to boot.
1
@Anne-Marie Hislop - Yes, this is part of his disease. President Trump can't just say he disagrees with you, he must also try to denigrate you as a person, to the point where he just makes himself look, quite simply, very pathetic. Of course, that John McCain was not a war hero is the one that will haunt him forever. But he has a long trail of these--Meryl Streep is not a good actress, Labron James is not a good basketball player, etc.
1
Both Presidents are taking credits for a temporary boost in our economy paid by our children by policies that will bankrupt them. Obama with injecting money into stock markets and banks with quantitative easing and tripling our national debt and Trump continuing with tax cuts and uncontrolled military spending. Who will take credit when the time comes to pay the debt and the economy crashes.
3
Yes the economy was healthier under Obama than Trump. Trump is taking the glide path Obama left him and attacking it. He is just lucky that a president cannot do that much damage in 19 months. But the Republicans, by attacking high-tax-state workers with a $4 trillion tax increase, to pay for a $5.5 trillion tax cut for global capita,l are going to hollow out demand yet again. The tax cuts are not going into investment. They are just being taken as profits by the super rich.
But I have one problem with Obama's speeches.
Obama its still relying on hope.
Hope is a nearly useless sentiment.
Hope is not agency. Hope is what you fall back on when you have no ability to affect your situation. When you have fallen and you can't get up, what you have left is hope. Hope has no action behind it.
Obama spent the first 6 years of his presidency hoping that Republicans would be reasonable and compromise. Where did that get us? It got us here, suffering under a dangerous president who is against the Constitution.
And the Democrats are still doing it. A corrupt president (who puts himself above the People all of the time) made a corrupt nomination of a Justice (designed to protect Trump, not do the People's business). The Democratic response? They treat it like a normal appointment and HOPE that some Republicans vote against it.
Hope and a metro card will get you on the subway.
Republicans spend zero time on hope. They have goals, strategies, and tactics, and never compromise.
Fight!
5
@McGloin
Republicans do know a thing or two about "hope." Small business owners now have record levels of "hope" (a/k/a optimism).
3
Trump supporters continue to try to take credit for the great economy until you ask them exactly what are the removed regulations that spurred the growth and where are all the manufacturing factories being built from corporate tax cuts?
Crickets...
10
@KDolan
You do know the Tax cuts just kicked in recently. Have patience and you can make your judgement in 6 years when Trump leaves office.
No crickets, just solid opinion.
1
@Saints Fan Yup. In six years, after the temporary middle class tax cuts expire, while the permanent tax cuts for the 1% keep right on going.
Obama hit the gas when the economy hit a hill as he simultaneously built guardrails on the downward slope to keep it on track. He decelerated when economic activity achieved a self-sustaining momentum and even applied the breaks occasionally to keep it on the road to recovery.
Trump removed the guardrails, put nitro in the tank, and slammed the pedal to the metal. Right now, we're firing on all cylinders and might even achieve lift. Welcome to Trump Air.
12
The buck always stops at the top and Obama unequivocally gets credit for delivering us from the absolute worst economic condition of most of our lifetimes.
At this point all Trump can take credit for is sustaining the Obama recovery. Imo the economy is strong in spite of him not because of him. We have yet to realize the final result of his careless actions. Time will tell the true story.
17
“The Trump economy so far has reached a real inflection point,” Larry Kudlow, the president’s national economics adviser, said'
That's rich.
It's like saying my Golden Retriever is responsible for the new roof on the house. She was there when the roof was put on. But, she didn't do much to help.
It will be SO nice when Trump and his lap dogs are gone.
22
Trump tweeted this morning:
"If the Democrats had won the Election in 2016, GDP, which was about 1% and going down, would have been minus 4% instead of up 4.2%. I opened up our beautiful economic engine with Regulation and Tax Cuts. Our system was choking and would have been made worse. Still plenty to do!
6:10 AM · Sep 10, 2018"
Nevermind the unhinged fantasy that if Trump were not president, then we would somehow have a negative 4% GDP.
But now he's claiming "Regulation" instead of deregulation is his secret sauce for making the economy Great.
This so-called president can't keep his story straight.
15
The comments to this article indicate a mixed reaction to Obama's remarks, which is heartening to know Americans are no longer bamboozled by him.
11
It’s a shame so many are still bamboozled by Trump.
9
@Southern Boy
It's not unlike how it was with Obamacare. He and democrats, including most NYT posters, swore it was "better" for everyone. Then Americans started to see with their own eyes. The rest is history. The last midterm demonstrated the schism between what the democrats and Obama were claiming and what Americans were experiencing.
It's no different now. Democrats and most NYT posters are claiming the tax cut is only for the rich. (Obviously, they've never bothered to read a tax table.) and Trump is not having any real effect. Once again, Americans can see with their own eyes how the economy has improved under Trump.
I, for one, hope republicans will come out in force once again to show they are not buying democrats' claims. Thankfully, Obama is back to remind them how things were before Trump was elected. His trying to take credit reminds everyone of his..."personality type." Couldn't come at a better time.
4
@Southern Boy And yet Republicans are bamboozled by a guy who has a long history of scams, deception, mismanagement and personal betrayals. He's the ultimate salesman, he always tells you what you want to hear.
3
All the statistics and economic theories may sound good to some people - but for the vast majority of "folks" - "the economy" is a disaster. Hey, sure, the rich are doing great! Corporations are booming with stock prices and the like. But all those marvelous jobs that have been created - under both elite men - Obama and Trump - are mostly part time or temporary - no benefits. If you only work for 2 hrs a week - that's "employed" on the govt books. If you've given up looking for a job or ran out of unemployment ins. then you don't count. If people don't believe that both political parties have something to be gained by cooking or tweaking the books - then they're hopelessly naïve.
All of these numbers are propaganda. And every time Obama brags about the economy - formerly Dem voters remember the bailed out banks, the foreclosures that he did little or nothing to stop (Geithner - "foam the runway for the banks") - the lousy jobs available, the student loan debt, the strikes in WI that he was silent on, Occupy, - and they remember how all the already super wealthy got wealthy beyond imagination. Income inequality and unpayable student debt blew through the roof on his watch. He did nothing to strengthen unions - he did nothing but encourage people to fill out their Fafsa's and take on more debt. He protected the health ins cartels profits. So please - Trump is a reflection of the true, ugly nature of business and morality in this country. Obama (et al) are the masks.
5
@Kate Flannery
Imagine how much more could have been accomplished with a congress that worked to support the former president because they cared about the plight of the average American. Their brick wall stance on everything coming from the white house irregardless of the harm it caused is the biggest reason for the slowness of the recovery.
6
@Kate Flannery
"All the statistics and economic theories may sound good to some people - but for the vast majority of "folks" - "the economy" is a disaster."
*************
This is just not true. The confidence of small businesses has jumped dramatically and is now at record levels*. Considering small businesses account for over half the private sector workforce, that's significant.
From CNBC:
"Overall, 58 percent of respondents say business conditions are "good," up from 53 percent last quarter and up from 39 percent a year ago. The data reflect similar findings from both the small-business group the National Federation of Independent Business and Wells Fargo/Gallup on Main Street confidence, which report levels at or near record highs.
"This feels like a much more solid footing because of the assessment of how things are going today for small businesses, with 58 percent saying conditions are "good," said Jon Cohen, chief research officer for SurveyMonkey. Some of this is because of opinions of President Trump, with 57 percent saying they approve of the job he is doing. But really it's the underlying business conditions that have been improving steadily throughout his term."
*****************
*"Small-business confidence is back at record high under Trump: CNBC/SurveyMonkey" (8/18)
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/15/small-business-confidence-hits-another-r...
3
@Jim Roberts Absolutely - the GOP - totally immoral and just without any principle or honor at all.
Obama though was president. He had Congress for two years - he had tremendous public support. He got the kind of recovery and economy he wanted. This is no mystery. He loves the free-market. For regular folks, THEY can work hard and play by the rules and maybe pull themselves up with more and more education (paid for with debt) - while Wall Street and the Medical, Military, and Financial Industrial complexes made out like bandits and followed no rules.
He could have enforced anti-trust law and kept some of these monopolies from ballooning. He could have passed card check. He could have made federal contracts contingent on fair pay for workers. He could have advocated for higher minimum wage.
People need to stop fooling themselves. Take a look at Obama's entire career and voting record and the things he actually put a lot of physical and emotional effort into.
Before anything can ever get better in any sphere - people need to recognize the truth. No matter if it's disillusioning or not.
He wants to take credit for the largest wealth transfer from the bottom to the top in the history of the country as well as the greatest loss of minority wealth as well. This is an economy he wants to claim? The fact that the GOP stood in the way of everything hypothetically good that O wanted to do - doesn't absolve him from the rest.
I understand what Obama and Trump are trying to say.
But from a German perspective, the American economy is close to the next financial crisis which will likely happen in 2-3 years. In the last weeks Germany's biggest newspapers published a series of articles regarding the exploding US national debt, but also the dangerously high debts of Chinese, Turkish and Russian.
We will see how this turns out. Under Obama the debts almost doubled. Trump should have been the conservative economist, to save money, but he decided to do it like Reagan and Bush before -- by stimulating economy witn even more debts. The only is that > 100 % national debt of the biggest economy in the world means that nobody can and will help when everybody else having high debts himself, i.e. China.
So it is interesting that Trump manages to even convince the Democrats that the US is doing fine -- despite making huge debts year after year.
As one ZEIT editor put it, these are signs of a conservative crisis that has troubles to correct the liberal debt economy theories of 1980-2010.
1
I don't know very many Democrats who Trump has convinced the economy is doing fine.
4
I wouldn't trust anything Obama says. Trump's record on the economy is so much better than Obama and it happened in less than two years; not eight years. Trump is making Obama look like what he is - an incompetent.
8
@Charle does that make sense? No think about economics 101. He (trump) takes credit, lies repeatedly. He was not handed over the worst economy in our life. He likes to ride coat tails.
1
Obama accused Trump of not having any answers when Trump claimed he would fire up the economy and put people back to work. Obama even mockingly referenced a "magic wand".
Well, Obama was wrong. Trump was able to stimulate the economy and has reduced unemployment. Now Obama is back to mock again.
One of the least attractive characteristics of Obama was his smug arrogance. That's back too.
10
@Dallas Crumpley
Trump is a buffoon, but at least he delivers. And I don't appreciate your insinuation that I'm racist. It's uncalled for and just a low blow.
@AACNY, so just how did trump stimulate the economy?
3
Trump has given the US economy a cocaine high on one trillion dollars of fresh debt to finesse the November election. Everything Trump is fake.
19
@Steve Bolger
Obama doubled the deficit by 10T.
3
Fiscal 2007: $161 billion (next to last year of Bush’s second term)
Fiscal 2008: $459 billion (beginning impact from the Great Recession)
Fiscal 2009: $1.4 trillion (Obama’s first year and in the teeth of the Recession)
Fiscal 2010: $1.3 trillion
Fiscal 2011: $1.3 trillion
Fiscal 2012: $1.1 trillion
Fiscal 2013: $680 billion
Fiscal 2014: $485 billion
Fiscal 2015: $438 billion
Fiscal 2016: $587 billion
Fiscal 2017: $666 billion (Trump’s first year of his Presidency)
-Forbes
2
Obama says “Trump isn’t the cause, he’s the symptom..”. Yes Trump is the symptom because was elected because of Obama’s miserable performance as President.
7
@toonces - Actually, it would bolster your statement if you could provide some facts. Remember, Obama was handed an economy in a deadfall created by republicans. Obama put on the breaks and steered the economy in a positive direction avoiding a most certain depression. As the economy continued to grow and gain momentum IQ45 stole the scene. Now he takes credit for an improving economy? No. Those of us who actually think, know where the credit deservedly lies.
5
@toonces this coming from the guy who majored in Bankruptcies 101. Great businessman. I like my businessmen not to practice business by putting them under. Than walking away.
1
The columnist failed to mention that during Obama's presidency, Trump via Fox News, referred to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly reports of increased economic growth and lower unemployment as fake news.
I don’t recall Trump trashing these two agencies since he’s been president. Do you? All of a sudden, their numbers are on the mark.
Trump, the Liar-in-Chief.
16
Why do you think Obama demands he, and not Trump, get the credit for instituting the economy of the 1%?
And where is FDR in this contest? RE: **When it comes to economics, presidents would rather be remembered as Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton than Herbert Hoover.**
Woo boy. This editorial shows us that the ClintoDems are still circling the drain.
5
Trump taking sole credit for the growth of the economy is rather like Obama taking sole credit for the economic bailout after 2008. Obama would never do that....oh, wait....
5
This year’s midterm elections will be a chance to check the significance of the economy as a political bellwether.
In years past, indicators such as GDP (and remember GNP?) or stock indices were of interest to everybody, because when those numbers increased they were evidence of an expanding economy: a bigger pie, with everybody’s piece expected to grow accordingly. The significance of high job-creation figures and low unemployment was obvious. Not only did more and more people have jobs, but labor was in a seller’s market, which was understood to place pressure on employers to increase wages. All boats tended to rise, unless they started getting swamped by inflation.
Donald Trump and the Republican Party are carrying on the tradition of citing those indicators as reasons for all Americans to be pleased with the state of the economy. No doubt the Forgotten Trumpists, those often overlooked in the news media who are not working-class but investing-class, are duly pleased. But what about people who have jobs and yet aren’t enjoying wage growth; who see the pie getting bigger while their own pieces stay the same at best? This disconnect didn’t begin just recently, but it ought to have made itself acutely felt by now.
I wonder if “good times” will really be an easy sell to many ordinary Americans this year, no matter which president gets credit for them.
3
@Longestaffe But what about people who have jobs and yet aren’t enjoying wage growth; who see the pie getting bigger while their own pieces stay the same at best? This is what America has been saying for the last 9 years. The recovery has only just begun tho. Our economy is growing, wages, in a most recent report, went up 2.9%. GDP, jobs, unemployment - all are signs that recovery is happening. With the bad policies of the last 16 years, President Trump has made remarkable strides in correct these in just a year & 1/2
1
@william
Thanks for your reply. I'll take that information on board.
However, I'm afraid you overreach in saying, "President Trump has made remarkable strides...." One might as well say, "President Obama did a remarkable job of setting this in motion."
Anyway, the spectacle of President Trump's own party in Congress struggling to work around his contradictory impulses makes it hard for me to see him as the author of any accomplishments.
I am glad President Obama said to Trump and the GOP he and the Democratic policies got the economy going after another very poor GOP George Bush got us into a trillion dollar budget deficit . He gave a trillion to the rich also. I hope it makes the GOP heads spin when they hear the truth and I can't understand why they cannot comprehend President Obama started this recovery from the worst recession ever. Their GOP leaders feed them lies daily like their is no climate issues and were drowning in many places the sea is rising . Ignorance is bliss.
6
President Trump has no use for actual economic metrics or basic truth. He won't admit he entered the white house inheriting a robust economy from Barack Obama.
In 2009 Obama took on an economy in total free-fall, as the nation was losing 800,000 jobs a month. The Obama administration put the economy back on solid ground.
Of course it's a total misrepresentation that Trump claims he inherited a disaster. Stocks, GDP and jobs rose under Trump, same as they had under Obama. These are provable facts!
Obama faced a Great Recession and eradicated its effects. While Trump praised the 4.1% annual growth rate in the 2nd quarter as "never before," the economy exceeded that level 4 times during the Obama presidency: in 2009, 2011 and two times in 2014!
27
Remember the 100 monkey scenario? Put 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters (now computers) and one of them will produce an actual word. The same can be said of Economics. Ask 100 economists a question about the economy and you’ll get 100 different answers. You know why this country is in so much turmoil politically right now? It’s pretty simple! Those 100 monkeys are now working for Fox News and The Trump Administration.
16
The trump administration is pushing the burgeoning US debt to new levels, inflating a bubble that is closer and closer to popping.
The trump "American Dream" is working class people who can't afford health insurance even while holding down two jobs plus odd-jobs, tax breaks for the wealthy and the destruction of regulations meant to protect US Citizens from unsafe environmental practices. I think it's more an "American Nightmare" than a "dream".
The Obama administration managed to recover from the great Lehman Bros bankruptcy and reign in big banking risk taking with depositor's funds, and still grow the economy...
20
[Numbers in thousands]
Civilian labor force
July 2018: 162,245
Aug. 2018: 161,776
Change: -469
Employed
July 2018: 155,965
Aug. 2018: 155,542
Change: -423
Unemployment rate
July 2018: 3.9%
Aug. 2018: 3.9%
Source:
Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm
Note:
The number of people employed in August 2018 was 423,000 fewer than on July 2018.
The only reason the unemployment rate held steady at 3.9% is that the “Civilian labor force” dropped by 469,000.
If the labor force had continued to grow at its historic 1.1% annual rate the “Unemployment rate” would have increased to 4.2%
13
Federal debt went up under Obama: that’s a fact.
Obama had to bail out industries that failed under Republicans and pay for wars started under Republicans.
Context is important.
21
@Jeff this is true. And the auto companies who benefited paid back the stimulus money.
And the Federal debt is going up faster than I can type right now.
6
@Jeff. Federal debt has gone up under every modern president, other than a couple of years under Bill Clinton. The W Bush administration took care of that, ludicrously asserting that we were paying down the aggregate debt too fast.
So they cut taxes, started two gruesomely costly wars, deregulated finance recklessly, and crashed the whole thing, just in time for the Democrats to step in to fix it.
If a contractor added ten floors to Trump Tower so it was actually 68 stories, would Trump give him full credit for the whole building?
Posed this question to him on his Twitter feed. No response so far.
12
During the recovery under president Obama the economy was getting 800,00 new jobs a month. Suddenly the reality show jester shows up and claims victory as if....well, we all know. Come November between the midwest deplorables and W.H dysfunctionals we need a total renovation at both swampy Houses.
13
It’s hard to take a comment on economic issues seriously when it says “800,00”.
3
Dont even go there. GDP growth for 2016 was a lousy 1.6%. the stock market had barely budged the entire year. The S&P is now up 30% starting the day after Trump was elected. The Nasadaq? 60%. This has been a historic, parabolic move. Avg hourly earnings are now up 2.9%, biggest yearly increase in 10 years. Now a year and a half into Trumps presidency, this is all Obama? Obama was theo ne who declared 2% growth will be the new norm - now he takes credit after Trump lowers taxes and blows up all of his onerous regulations??
Obama does this because he knows there a lot of Trump haters who will believe anything he says, and his cohorts in the media will back him up.
The truth, the facts, and for crying out loud, a simple chart, says otherwise
8
You're conflating the Dow with GDP. You do of course realize that's misleading at best, though it's probably just due to being misinformed; there's no direct connection between the economy and the Dow, so you can't interpret one by examining the other.
Here's some perspective: https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart
You'll clearly see that since 1933 (the bottom of the Great Depression) and especially since 2008 (the bottom of the Great Bank Crash), the Dow has essentially grown at about 8-12% per year on average. The performance for the Dow during Trump's watch is statistically average and what would be expected long term. I think you might be surprised that's almost perfectly a linear extension from the previous 8 years.
Trump spent many years exclaiming that all the economic metrics were false and inserted his own made up numbers. Then suddenly (now that he's president conveniently) all the numbers are accurate. I'm quite sure that in his own mind after having proclaimed that the nation had between 25-40% unemployment (the numbers depended on his audience) that 4% was (sarcasm) due to his expertise.
Even the recent statements about worker salary doing up may be in question, because the Labor Dept changed the way they score salary; now employer provided healthcare increases are considered 'salary', even though workers don't actually see any of it. All administrations bend numbers; this one does it a lot more.
4
You need to check your facts. They are wrong. Did the stock market go from 7000 to 18,000 under Obama? Didn't jobs go from losing 800,000 per month under Bush to averaging over 200K per month under Obama? Didn't he save the auto, insurance and banking industries with much needed regulations -- now being undone and we will start seeing the negative effects soon. Didn't unemployment go from nearly 11 percent to 4+ percent under Obama? Nothing Trump has done to build on that performance is comparable. Trump took over an economy that was growing for 8 years under Obama while Obama took over a GOP disaster. Again, not even comparable. And let's not quite judge Trump's legacy yet since he is only 1.5 years into his presidency. Let's review it after 4 years. I guarantee there will be a recession by then.
5
@Sports Medicine you mean the onerous regulations protecting endangered species, the environment, and measures to
Impede climate change? Or do
you mean the regulations protecting consumers, or perhaps protecting women from sexual offenders on college campuses? Banks confiscating people's entire life savings due to "suspicious" behavior such as taking out a large withdrawal and then the bank never returns the money once the suspicion has been proven false? Whose side are you on may I ask?
3
Obama is claiming credit for the amazing pace the economy is roaring at, but anyone who witnessed the whole story knows the truth.
After the 2008 crash when the massive banking system was bailed out, Obama and the Democrats created a huge wish list of "shovel ready" jobs that just turned out to be a feeding frenzy at the taxpayers expense, In the time frame of Obama's presidency he doubled the nations debt. He added debt that equalled amounts all the presidents before him combined had lain on the obligations of generations to come.
We all remember being told about the "New Normal" of tepid, mediocre 1 percent growth rates. Watching the strangulation of business made prevalent by attitudes that were strongly anti-business in its nature.
Then the new administration came in and removed the boot of over-regulation and inserted of a much more competitive tax structure for without these items we would still be languishing in a stagnant economic picture.
Claiming responsibility for the victory is ludicrous coming from the Obama camp.
10
@Straight Shooter Pour gasoline on a flame and you get a huge roaring blaze. That is the truth of the Trump economy. Our lower/middle class problem is that all the heat of that blaze is going into the air, and we are going to be left with the ashes when it burns out,,,as it surely will once voter realize the debt these tax cuts are costing our grandchildren, infrastructure, and government programming (like schools and colleges).
5
The mantra that so-called "overregulation" is evil overlooks the many social, health and environmental costs that come with deregulation.
Deregulation is only one of many political concessions to help the very rich get very much richer.
8
@Patrick Stevens
Funny how you don't mention the cost of servicing the debt now due to increases in the Interest Rates, a sum that needs to be serviced now with the Doubled Amount due on that Debt added by Mr. Obama.
This paper expected the economy to crash under Trump. The things he is doing are exactly what he promised to get elected. Sure the economy was increasing slowly under Obama, Trump put the hammer down and accelerated it. The business people I respect all indicate that the regulation changes are more significant than the tax reductions. Just more bias from the NYT, and the ex-president. His ideas were cash for clunkers, shovel ready jobs, and bribes to states that needed change to avoid layoffs in his supporters. Somewhat corrupt.
12
@vulcanalex Obama inherited the disastrous economic conditions, that GW Bush proported. Trickle Down economics has never worked, and it won't work this time. If you factor in the size of the Trump deficit, something that conservatives screamed about during the Obama administration, you are being either obtuse or hypocritical.
8
@Patti C
There was a one trillion tax cut, but past history indicates that increased revenue to government coffers should come in above that over time. A win for financial common sense AND fairness.
Obama did the hard work, taking a load of criticism. All Trump did was sign a tax cut that will come back to hunt us in two years.
16
@Bruce Egert Almost everything Obama did was wrong, it delayed the recovery and make it far less robust. In exchange he reduced the pain somewhat for his supporters, and worse for others.
8
Trump won't be able to tweet when he's in jail, right? How wonderful would that be? Day after day free of lies and bluster.
14
Only a fool would deny Obama’s economic recovery that powered through a hostile congress and righted the ship which is now heading off course. Seems republicans have a nack for giving away to store to their rich donors on Wall St while sticking it to Main St. amazing how some believe anything this snake oil salesman shovels down their throat
13
Let's see if Mr Trump takes credit when the tariffs he is trying to put into place backfire and start hurting job growth. Remember this rich person went bankrupt 8 or so times. He intends to do the same with the deficit he is growing right now. He intends if he is allowed to stay in, to bankrupt our government to help Mr Putin! What a disgrace that this person has been given the keys to our government!
11
Where are the graphs/charts demonstrating this? I was a math teacher. One graph is worth 2 articles.
5
@C No graph demonstrates properly anything. The reasons for the changes are very complex, far more than this paper could understand no less explain. And they would rig the graph anyhow.
3
@C A graph goes back to real numbers then it is showing reality . An exploding deficit is a reality.
1
The Times could assist in facilitating a non-partisan argument by publishing a five or ten year graph of job growth by month, unemployment rate by month - and perhaps adding monthly deficit figures if available?
Intuitively the deficit figures will be going up if taxes have gone down and entitlement programs have not yet been put to the knife.
13
...neither of them should be taking credit - they both have big egos that need stroking - typical politicians.
Obama doubled our debt in 8 years to $21 trillion - he can take credit for that - he’s such a loser.
Trump is extending our deficit and has increased an already wasteful military budget - he’s not much better!
8
Context JMS, context. Every situation is more nuanced than you are presenting. Life isn’t just a meat and potatoes mindset.
1
@JMS my point exactly. It's a chain of wannabe oligarch presidents padding the real ones so they Arecibo rewarded at the end of their term of service, not to the 99.999% but rather to the.0001%.
As far as we can see, recessions take place under, and are fueled by, Republicans. Beware of short term miradles.
6
Didn’t the NYT resident expert Paul Krugman predict economic catastrophe following Trump’s election? And didn’t Obama say that coal and manufacturing jobs were likely gone forever, along with stating categorically that 2% growth was the new norm economically?
As with so many empty politicians, the message seems to be ‘I was great! If you don’t believe it, ask me’.
Obama’s disappointing economic legacy speaks louder than his oration to the contrary, and he deserves zero credit for the outstanding turnaround under a businessman’s leadership. It’s sad that unlike every President before him, he did not have the class to cheer from the sidelines.
14
@HENRY Perhaps not zero, but not that much, this newspaper is highly biased as is Obama.
7
If the Republican Party had not directed 100% of its efforts toward denying President Obama a second term -- in other words, if the Republicans had been partners in government instead of antagonists -- Obama's could have offered a greater stimulus and moved the economy forward more quickly.
I really don't understand why Republicans don't concede that the economy always thrives under Democratic administrations, and suffers under Republican, business-giveaway ones. History shows this.
The huge deficit will come back to haunt our nation, Trumpers and Never-Trumpers alike.
6
@Mostly Rational - LOL, and of course when that happens they no doubt will blame the Democrats. Republicans - their national symbol should be 'finger pointing'.
1
Yep. When he was President, the economy was all Bush’s fault. Now that he’s not President, the economy is all his doing. Funny how that works.
Remember this great prognostication from the former President? “When somebody says like the person you just mentioned who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back. Well how exactly are you going to do that? What are you going to do? There’s no answer to it,”
Yet somehow he wants credit now? Typical.
12
@Mark Smith
Lol. So you are pretending that there was no economic collapse in 2008? You don't remember the regular headlines in the last year of Bush declaring hundreds of thousands of jobs lost?
Obama was sworn in in 2009.
At the end of twelve years of nearly total Republican control of both houses of Congress and eight years in the Presidency, the Republican Party left the worst economic recession since the Great Depression! You nearly destroyed the world economy.
Obama not only helped turn that around, but but had steady growth and job creation for his entire term.
It is not inconsistent to say that the beginning of the Obama administration was affected by Bush and the beginning of the Trump Administration was affected by Obama. The beginning of a new presidency is always affected by he previous presidency.
So your supposed example of hypocrisy is not hypocrisy at all, and your "facts" are not what happened.
Here is hypocrisy:
Republicans accuse the Democrats of creating debt.
Clinton leaves office with a shrinking debt.
Bush cuts taxes on the rich (which shrinks, not raises revenue) then lies to create a war on Iraq, then crashes the economy.
Bush leaves Obama with a yearly deficit of a trillion dollars. Republicans immediately blame it on Obama.
Obama cuts the deficit in half by the the end of his term, as promised.
Now the Party of Trump has passed another tax cut for the rich and increased spending, which its predicted to grow the debt to $20 trillion.
7
@Mark Smith So Bush doesn't get any blame whatsoever for the state of the economy when he was in office? And Trump gets all the credit for it magically turning around after being in office for less than two years?
Hmmm, if only we could pinpoint what happened in those 8 years in between with some sort of factual evidence...
4
It wasn't that long ago when the Republicans were beating up on Obama for increasing the deficit and national debt while he was saving our big financial institutions from complete default and thus the collapse of our economy. Obama turned things around and handed Trump a healthy, but slowly growing economy. The same Republicans didn't seem to find any fault at all when Trump put forward and they passed a tax break for the rich that adds at least $1 trillion more to the national debt. There is only one solution and that is change Congress this November.
14
I find it interesting how politicians attribute economic success to things done many years before. No doubt Obama and Trump will still be taking credit for the prosperity of the country 20 years from now.
5
Math doesn't lie, here's the math:
When President Obama took office:
-the US was losing 800,000 jobs a month
-unemployment was over 10%
When President Obama left office:
-the US was creating 200,000 jobs a month (for 72 months!)
-unemployment was under 5%
Trump has maintained the trajectory of the economy that Obama started. There is no 'alternative math'.
73
@thetruthfirst And of course the president is responsible for that, not just a cycle?
2
@vulcanalex since you asked you are correct, the President can control pieces of it, and Obama did just that with stimulus actions, tax cuts, etc. He gets a good chunk of credit, yes.
1
I think I missed the part about where the rate of inflation now equals or surpasses the rate of wage growth, which means a negative wage growth.
Or doesn't that count in assessing Trump's tax cuts?
15
Once again, a failure of critical thinking about the data. Look at just about any graph over time of unemployment numbers, job creation, the stock market (DOW, S&P 500, etc) and a host of other economic data and the result is the same. The real inflection point was roughly in March of 2009 and the trends and the regression equation of the line show Trump's economy is just a continuations of a 9 year trend.
18
This article was reasonably good, but it could really benefit from a graph using official BLS data. Such a graph (of, say, private sector jobs) clearly shows no evidence of any kind of acceleration in job growth. Job creation is tooling along at essentially the same clip as it did during the last several years of the Obama Administration; there is no sign of any benefit from Trump, despite the fact that he and his Republicans have returned to the fiscally-irresponsible policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and large increases in wasteful defense spending (which ought to at least provide a little short-term stimulation to the economy, while mortgaging our future).
15
@Joel Shore Official BLS data is suspect, anything from a survey is not reliable. How about someone actually use social security database for their analysis. Nobody is out of the workforce until their full retirement age. You are employed if for a quarter you contribute. You are unemployed if you don't. Lots of analysis possible there, not so much at the BLS.
2
@vulcanalex Well, no data is perfect, but I think the BLS data is generally regarded as reasonably accurate. (Even conspiracy theorists like Trump seem to strangely converted into believing the data now.)
I don't understand how you plan to figure out who "contributed" each quarter (from social security? But they can have inaccuracies too, not the least of which is that they miss those who are earning "under the table").
And, also, you are proposing a specific definition of unemployment. In reality, the BLS tracks several different measures of unemployment, all of which are potentially of interest. (At any rate, I was just talking about the data for private sector jobs, not unemployment.)
You had your turn, President Obama, now it’s time to retire from politics. You don’t realize it, but you are so unpopular that you are aiding the other side. Your liberal agenda is outdated, and the American people are taking their country back.
19
@John Murray Actually Obama is WAY more popular than Trump. But his supporters don't believe in facts. They believe a man who has a long, long history of hucksterism.
And for the record, we are ALL Americans.
8
@John Murray
Obama's current (retrospective) job approval rating is 63 percent. Trump's is currently around 25 points lower. Even while he was president, Obama's average job approval rating was about 10 points higher than Trump's. It's your right not to like liberals; just get your facts straight.
7
His “liberal agenda” is what saved the economy that Trump claims as his own. Facts matter.
5
More Obama hogwash. Not only did President Trump not tank the economy, as predicted by the Left, “unemployment is now at 3.9 percent, close to the lowest it has been in a half-century, and joblessness among African-Americans and other minorities has also fallen to historically low rates. The stock markets have reached record highs...” President Trump took the lid off with deregulation and a historic tax cut. Obama kept us in the doldrums. You could just as well say Bush lifted the economy after it tanked since he left a large part of the dollar stimulus for Obama. Like everything else Obama has ever said, “if you like your doctor you can keep him/her” etc., it is all malarky that 63 m Americans are glad to escape from.
12
@Sue Mee WE all want to congratulate The Donald for not tanking the economy. Let's hope that the ballooning deficit created by the Billionaire's Tax Cut doesn't ruin it. So far the economy has continued along the same arc that it was following during the Obama Administration. Hatred for Obama blinds people to the facts.
12
@Sue Mee Obama brought the jobless rate down from 10% to just under 5. Trump's brought it down a point. Similarly, minority unemployment steadily declined during the Obama years, and now Trump wants to take credit for all of it.
Obama may have made an overly rosy projection about the ACA (I personally did keep my doctor), but he was not a pathological liar like the current president is. Oh, and 66 million people voted for a continuation of Obama and the Democrats' policies.
5
@Scott K Growth and increased effectiveness of the federal government will adjust that deficit. Someone had to fund the military after our coward politicians allowed it to decline (both parties).
I’m am Convinced that Donald Trump is ridding on the coat tail of President Obama. I am glad that President Obama brought this issue to the forefront.
I good amount of people know that Trump did not turn the economy around. His sheep will not agree as they will continue to follow him off the cliff.
20
@RB Not turn it around increase its speed and effectiveness in making jobs for citizens. You convince easily that which you desire.
1
How many of the jobs are in Trump country and how much more are they making ? What industries ?
10
Mr. Kudlow:
There was no Obama "war on business" and "no war on success". But thanks for reminding us where your values are. I rarely hear you mention words like "people, public safety or environmental protection" - all of which are being abandoned by this so called "pro-business" administration. It's certainly not the business of the people.
If "pro-business" means encouraging coal burning when it is no longer cost competitive, I am confused about the meaning. I guess I'll assume you are pro poisoning the population while you hoodwink them with your "populist" oligarchal babble.
Your rich constituents will be able to afford the stilts for their waterside mansions. Your poor suckered MAGA hat wearers will still be dealing with moldy sheetrock. Someday...perhaps they will understand that regulations are there to protect us all.
Obama and I are pro business of the people - all the people. But enjoy your weekend in the Hamptons.
85
@Bob Bruce Anderson Sure there was, massive regulations, foolish Paris accord, etc. And no matter what domestic coal will not be increasing, exports could. They could have their decline reduced which in some areas would be great.
2
@Bob Bruce Anderson
Obama produced massive amounts of regulations. There's a reason business optimism is so much higher with Trump.
Trump is actually interested in helping businesses succeed. Considering small businesses account for most job creation and make up over 90% of all businesses, this is music to their ears.
4
@AACNY - Yes, unfortunately that is true. Business will succeed and grow while damaging the people with unregulated pollution. At the same time, the shareholders will be stuffing their pockets with even more money. Am I missing something? This is a good thing, why?
Trump takes credit for the sun coming up.
28
@JoyceeO, And trump takes credit for creating it.
2
" You don't know what you've GOT, 'till it's Gone ".
Thanks, President Obama. Seriously.
14
Both Presidents had a hand in the long recovery; Obama with his stunning advisers gift to save us from a Republican incompetence, and Trump who is simply a hyperventilating cheerleader prone to gross untrue embellishment, but it is the the People of America, in all walks of life, that made the economy terrific.
4
He can take credit for the economy the same way he takes credit for his business success- "Born on third base"
Obama, on the other hand, was kinda like Jackie Robinson- no?
14
As always, Trump is slowly chipping away on the values of decency, slowly eroding trust. Trust on institutions, trust on people, trust on communities.
More than a snake oil salesman, he’s a snake tongue, poisoning minds with the pettiness that his character brings.
While flat out corruption or unjust wars leave clearly open wounds, seen by everyone and stinking from afar, this president’s rhetoric will plant deep seeds of resentment. It will not end well and it will have strong repercussions.
9
There has been no president in our history who so denigrated his predessor as Trump has. Trump gets his power by beating up on people of color and what he calls dumb southerners from non ivy leagueschools. Trump tells lies so often that he and his followers really beluieve the lies. The thought that Obama speaking up is going to inspire Trump's base to comeout and vote is one that serves Trump more than the left. The Left's timid approah to The Right has always cost them. The Right pushed the envelope and denied Garland a seat on the Supreme Court.The only way The Left is going to bring some sanity back to our country is to be willing to put on the gloves and fight.
13
Trumps has goosed the economy by borrowing a trillion dollars and using this for short term gain. It would be the same as me buying a $200,000 Ferrari and feeling boastful and wealthy. What happens we I need to begin paying for this? Trump is looking for a shortsighted goal and, again, conning his supporters into believing that the future will be bright. By the time this future occurs, he will be living comfortably in a minimum security prison.
5
@me Absolutely no, he changed the attitude of many people and he is forcing by tariffs more jobs.
2
@Obama's deficits were over 1.3 Trillion each year for his first 4 years. He added 9 Trillion to the debt.
Did you feel the same about Obama?
Just curious.
4
Not so fast, Barrack, this economy belongs to Donald J. Trump now. During the recovery, if you can call a recovery under your tenure, the jobs were part-time service sector jobs, working as a barista at Starbucks, barely making enough money to live in mom and dad's basement, not the kind of employment a man needs to raise a family. So long as millennials worked at that level, the argument for communism by Sanders and other "Democratic Socialists" seemed very attractive.
Now, under Donald J. Trump, a real businessman, not a community organizer, the economy is booming, with unemployment levels for all racial and ethnic groups at the lowest levels in history! Just like how Obama lied about Americans being able to keep their health plans and physicians under what would become known as "Obamacare", only to see those promises evaporate into thin air, he is now if not lying at least exaggerating how great the economy was under him. At least be truthful about your legacy, Obama; a legacy which President Trump is dismantling piece by piece until it no longer exists except as crumbs on the trash heap of history. I support the President. I support Trump. He has triumphed and will continue to triumph through 2024. Thank you.
11
@Southern Boy It is fine to support whomever you want to support but try not to ignore basic economic facts.
4
@Southern Boy
Obama's was the worst recovery on record. There's no getting around his record, no matter how people try to defend it.
Trump's responsible for our economic growth. Must be his magic wand.
2
@AACNY, th recovery was well established before trump took office. Job growth has been steady it did not skyrocket under trump. Trump couldn't safely manage a seven eleven
Obama is delusional. Trump took an economy set to grind to a halt under an expected Clinton Presidency, one that was floundering in Obama's final years, and supercharged it. The left's lead economist, Paul Krugman, said the market would crash under Trump and was thoroughly discredited within days of the election. Obama ran up $10 trillion of national debt and $4 trillion on the Fed's balance sheet to fund one of the weakest recoveries in modern times. He assaulted business incessantly from a regulatory perspective and got unemployment down, in large part due to people exiting the workforce and getting on social security disability. Nowhere, before, during, or after his Presidency is there any evidence his economic strategy was more than use of the national credit card. He got the benefit of starting in a hole with the Fed willing to go all out to bail out the economy. Unlike Trump who cut taxes, Obama goes out with Obamacare taxes with his name on them - the ultimate Democrat trophy. Tax cuts aside, Trump's efforts to reduce the burden of the regulatory state, and his efforts to fight for American jobs and manufacturing are bearing fruit. Obama did a good job fighting for gay marriage and transgender bathrooms. Trump has focused on the broader benefits of a strong economy, the dignity of work and a stronger U.S. hand in trade negotiations. Consumer and business confidence is at highs, and it's Trump who is responsible.
14
@TL.
Thanks for saving me a lot of writing this morning! I agree with it all, well researched and well written,
6
Worse yet: Trumps tax cuts for the wealthy are leading to an ever greater deficit, which means that when the next downturn does come we’ll have less resources to dig out of it.
Obama created a nice, long burning evening campfire. Trump came to the campground late and drunk, saw the last fuel container and dumped it on the fire, and is now bragging about what an amazing fire starter he is.
43
@Jake everyone knows, deficits don't count when GP is at the helm.
3
@Jake
Interesting how democrats never mention the tax cuts for the middle class. They're not fooling anyone. Tax tables don't lie. A $2K tax credit per child is an automatic $2K tax cut per child.
This was a tax cut for the middle class as well.
4
@AACNY Oh Jesus - really? People are supposed to be grateful for crumbs when the wealthiest get to scarf a cake they don’t need, exploding our fiscal health in the process?
“There’s a linkage between taxes, regulation, confidence, business investment and wages,” Mr. Kudlow said. “It’s changed the thinking of people.” Unfortunately, magical thinking...
2
How refreshing it was to hear a speech without lies, without smears, without insults, without ranting and raving. A speech by a real patriot, and a real man.
33
When Obama and the Democrats passed the Recovery Act (which contrary to the GOP's current tax reform bill provoked a one-time, not a structural deficit increase, AND came at a time when contrary to today the economy urgently needed a stimulus - AND should have gotten bipartisan approval as it contained mainly tax cuts for the middle class and the most important job creators, small businesses) ... the non partisan CBO had shown that it would lay the foundation for a decade-long steady economic growth.
And indeed, no matter what economic graph you look at today, you see:
1. steady economic growth and lowering of the unemployment rate, and
2. NO Trump dent AT ALL. Nothing.
The reason why there's no Trump dent is because he actually didn't sign any bill into law that according to the non partisan CBO would seriously modify the Obama economy. In other words: because he didn't do anything at all.
Conclusion:
1. yes, the GOP and Trump deserve to be thanked for not ruining the Obama economy (yet ... as their recent tariffs will soon start ruining it, all independent studies show)
2. no, the GOP and Trump don't deserve ANY credit for the fact THAT the economy is doing well for years already, and, as has been objectively proven over and over again, ONLY because of Obama and the Democrats' actions after the Great Recession, actions that the GOP has opposed and tried to block time and again. So if anything, the GOP deserves blame for slowing down the recovery, and that's it.
6
Let's not forget Obama was working with a Congress that was unwilling to do anything he wanted to do. Obama wanted a far bigger stimulus than he got at a time when interest rates were zero. Now that stimulus comes in the form of a massive tax cut to corporations and the wealthy who had already recovered from the recession and were making money while the rest of the country is stagnating. The infrastructure in dire straits is left unattended. And now we have no money or borrowing room to attend to that. Now we are faced with a deficit that grows that will be paid for by average taxpayers. Trump wants everyone to believe that his 2 or 3 sunny days in a month of gloom for average Americans won't come at a price. Essentially Trump gave the wealthy a solar powered car and 1 tank of gas to everyone else. The latter will run out of gas eventually while the former will keep on going. Then we will see how Trump handles that mess. Because before that happens Trump will cut all the social programs and the supporters will be left with little to brag about. And no help to feed them, health care to save them, or money to keep the economy growing, Easy to brag when the economy is on autopilot. When the sputtering and stalling starts (which it will), the stock market starts to fail, and interest rates climb higher and higher, it's tough to call that Fake News. Especially if there are no rabbits to pull out of your hat.
4
@Walking Man
Funny, the way I remember it was that Obama had four years of Democrat control in both houses of Congress.
And I also remember that when he coerced his health care bill through he refused to even meet with Republicans. So no, he wasn't working to build bridges or the economy, he was hell bent on pushing through an unpopular and divisive and health care bill.
4
@Anne St. Louis You are incorrect President Obama did not have 4 years of Democrats controlling both houses of congress, he had at best 18 to 24 months especially after the death of Senator Kennedy and the subsequent complete flip of Congress in the 2006 mid-terms. Also the republicans refused to meaningfully work with democrats on what was originally a right-wing Heritage Foundation proposal from the 1990's during President Clinton's first term which provided the basis of the Affordable Care Act.
It appears that the Trump Party has only one measure for measuring success in this country and it is the economy. To believe them, if the economy is performing well, then everything is performing well. Why is it that we never hear anything from his party about health care costs, gun violence, debts and deficits, income inequality, resolution of foreign conflicts, environmental improvements, infant mortality rates, college affordability and more?
Trump and his gang would have us believe that the one and only measure that counts is the economy. I beg to differ. If the economy is growing at 3% but no one can afford to go to college or the hospital, then something is very wrong.
4
Democrat presidents clean up the messes left by their Republican predecessors. Republican presidents take credit for the hard work of their Democrat predecessors.
- Trump inherited Obama's economy.
- Obama had to sort out a near depression left by George W. Bush.
- W inherited a budget surplus and smoothly-running economy from Clinton.
- Reagan stepped into an economy that Carter had started cleaning up. Remember it was Carter who appointed Paul Volcker, who took the hard decisions to rein in inflation.
- Carter inherited both an economic and moral mess from Nixon/Ford. He had to deal with the deficits resulting from the Vietnam war, a recession and an oil crisis. Reagan was the beneficiary of the upswing, helped by massive deficit spending.
And don't forget the big daddy of them all - FDR and Hoover.
The myth of Republicans as good managers needs to be killed. Trump is just the man to lay it to rest once and for all.
14
I don't think even Democrats are denying that the economy is doing well right now. We're arguing that as usual, the GOP is being irresponsible, and then will try and blame it on Dems when it inevitably crashes, in 2 years or 20.
3
Have people really forgotten how awful the economic situation was when Obama entered office? How we were loosing 800,000 jobs a month due to the failed policies of the previous Republican administration? How Obama actually managed to stop that train wreck and actually saved us from disaster? Of course the economic growth under President Obama was slow. But that was because the Republicans did everything in their power to block him and prevent him from doing more for the US. Now Trumputin is claiming credit for an economy that was already going upwards despite of whom came into office?! Please spare me the excuses.
12
@TR
No one has forgotten but several presidents have overseen a recovery. Obama's was anemic but that standard.
The crash happened 10 years ago. It's time to move on.
2
@AACNY it was “anemic” because of the nature of the crash - a fundamental failure of the financial system, caused a global liquidity crisis. It’s easy to reboot an economy after an artificially induced recession (see Reagan); incredibly difficult in Obama’s case. And let’s not forget the great financial crisis was global, not just isolated to the US. But hey - who cares about critical thinking?
They haven’t forgotten. They’re just too consumed with hatred to give Obama the credit his due and to admit that the republicans undermined him the entire way to the detriment of the country.
No serious person will accept Obama’s credit for the economy. He embraced regulation and growth flatlined at 2%. Trump unleashed the animal spirit of American capitalism by removing regulatory barriers and we now have 3% and 4% growth. It’s no contest where credit belongs.
10
When Barrack Obama became President, unemployment was about 10 percent, and his well advised leadership accomplished a reduction of unemployment from 10 percent down to about 4.9 percent before Trump huffed his way into the Presidency. Trump has led the nation in a drop of unemployment of about 1 percent down to 3.9 percent unemployment. Who do you think deserves the most credit for the economic recovery?
5
Hmm there seems to be a lot of misinformation here. First let me explain I am a small business owner, not part of the 1%. Under President Obama’s my out of pocket for health care went to about $25000 per year, which is more than I pay monthly for my mortgage. When the tax cuts go into effect I should save about $20 k per year for a family of four. Real numbers not a rich person. Don’t care about Republican or Democrat.
Further, President Obama’s did little to address trade deficits with various countries, most notably China. They literally have slave labor and trash the environment. The air we all breath, not just the Chinese. I voted for Obama’s twice, but sorry to say he was no economic genius.
10
@Stephanie Cabrera
Erm... he's not the only one, then.
Mr.Trump inherited a good and improving economy.Instead of patiently continuing reasonable economic principles, he and his fellow Republicans decided to inject money into the system via a tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.It has given Mr.Trump something to crow about- it gave us another billion dollars in debt which we cannot afford.After the midterms the Republicans will insist that the debt be paid down by slashing social safety net programs.We will pay a high price for the feel good tax breaks!
3
I admire Obama, but it is crystal clear that Donald :Trump and the Republican congress have accelerated the US economy far more than Obama did or could have done. One reason is that the Republicans blocked everything Obama tried or might have tried to do. Another though is that business is just more at ease with Trump and the Republicans, at least on the fundamentals, and they have delivered on tax reform. Of course if the US ends up with trillion dollar deficits, that will be very expensive stimulus, possibly ruinously expensive, plus there is the trade mess, so this isn't over yet, it is too soon to say who did the better job.
6
Our country doesn't need a self-aggrandizing President with a bootlicking party in tow. When things go south, as they always will, who will Trump blame other than himself and his party? Part of leadership Mr. Trump is about letting other people give you praise when you truly earn it, not empty self-promotion.
2
In the 95 months since the start of the economic recovery DJT has been in office for approximately 20 of those months.
So DJT wants credit for a recovery that Obama’s started and presided over for 78.9% time.
A presidents policies do not have any real effect in one term especially an administration that has produced no serious economic improvements.
DJT is simply riding the success that Obama started years ago.
Vote 11/6!
18
Economic policies take time to grab hold. Trump inherited Obama's good work and, while Trump cut taxes, his policies have yet to shake out. The tariff wars, the increased budget deficits from his corporate tax cuts, and the toll on public health due to his revisionist climate policies are all going to be negative forces on the economy in the years to come. Then when the Democrats take over and the economy is tanking, the Republicans will blame the next President for what was caused by Trump. Ugh!
4
I went through the entire article looking for one specific policy of Obama’s or one measure taken by him that helped the economy but could find none. The bailout of the banks laid the groundwork for the recovery that began with him, but he didn’t “build” that. It was in place before he took office. The fed’s policy of quantitative easing was instrumental, but, again, it had nothing to do with him. The banks loved it because it started producing golden eggs for them and for the one percent once again, but his Justice Dept. couldn’t manage to jail a single bank executive, but settled with all of them. Obama, timid as always, didn’t want to rock the boat. I guess “social justice” would have to wait. It was his only strong suit, but he couldn’t even follow through on that.
The article mentions that national economic growth reached a high in 2014 under Obama, but somehow fails to mention that it tanked in 2015-16 when the economy stalled again. What did he do about it? Nothing—which is his usual policy in most things. It would take a “miracle,” he said defensively disparaging anything Trump might do to turn things around. Then when the miracle happened, he tries to take credit for it. But according to the article Trump is only “boasting,” which poor, under-appreciated Obama finds so “grating” that he must come out again to correct the record, but he can’t point to anything he did that he could take credit for, but only reminds us how weak and whining and totally clueless he is.
11
@Ed And some of those bail outs should never have happened. GM would be better off if bankruptcy had been their fate, same as some banks.
2
@Ed
Obama was the safety net president. That approach was important after the crash, but he never adapted to focus on economic growth. It appears he didn't believe it could happen judging from his magic wands and miracle comments.
It took Trump to make the necessary changes to make people realize they can get back to business, so to speak. Optimism is up because of Trump. Of course he's responsible.
4
@Ed
He saved the domestic auto industry and their domestic suppliers.
He took the first step towards a rational system for delivering health care for all that can be rationally managed to reduce costs for the country.
He helped non-fossil fueled based energy systems grow into profitable businesses, which will help the U.S. economy prosper while addressing climate change..
He helped introduce regulations to protect average citizens from being exploited by businesses who can dominate them in the marketplace.
I recall reading several years ago, possibly 20 or more, and likely in the NYT, that the impact of strategic financial changes nationally can take 8 years or longer to play out. This can mean that no sitting president can actually take credit, or blame, for everything that might happen during his, or someday her, term in office. It’s an interesting conundrum that forces us to look further into history to identify what works and what doesn’t.
How do we summon the rigor for that?
1
@Barbara Munch
It CAN take 8 years, but doesn't always take that long. Everything depends on the specific measure you take and the state of the economy at that time.
In 2009, GDP was at -8% and we were loosing 700,000 jobs a month.
The Recovery Act was a very well-designed package of tax cuts for the middle class (which needed money to increase lowering demand again) and small businesses that accepted to keep an employee they'd otherwise fire, or hire a new one, and subsidies.
The non partisan CBO has shown, in 2009, that it would stop the downward spiral and start turning around the economy in less then a year after it started to be implemented, and that's exactly what happened.
It has also shown that it would lay the foundation for steady, decade-long economic growth - which happened too.
Obama and the Democrats had the guts to base their emergency policies at the time NOT on ideology but on proven facts and non partisan analysis by experts.
So of course they and they alone (as the GOP constantly tried to block them) deserve credit for the current state of the economy.
Conclusion: yes, you cannot systematically attribute what's happening under a sitting president TO that president. You first have to analyse what caused that event to know which president is responsible for it. But that implies NOT starting to imagine that no matter what bill needs 8 years before it produces any impact, because that has been proven to be wrong.
4
Obama turned the economy around, yet while he was president Republicans were hysterical about the $500 billion deficit. Exit Obama and (it's a miracle) deficits are no longer a problem. Repubs through their tax cuts for corporations will at least double the deficit to $1 trillion in 2020.
Of course, if Dems take over during the mid-terms the Repubs will again prostrate themselves to convince voters the government needs to again take away tax deductions for middle class families and cut foodstamps, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in order to balance the budget. In truth, Repubs just love giving goodies to the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
31
As a soon as a Democrat returns to the White House, the Republicans will suddenly notice again the ballooning national debt and declare that it's time to start cutting Social Security and other entitlements...never mind that it's the Republican tax cuts for the rich that increased that debt in the first place. So predictable.
216
When the a tax funded 6% inflation rate settles in along with 8% interest rates, how will the 4% growth rate feel? Republican Genius at work...
36
The 4% number is after inflation. So it will feel pretty good.
1
One of the reasons I votes for Trump was the destruction of the Bushes and Clintons. The other was for the DNC turning its back on Bernie.
As far as I'm concerned, Obama's legacy is collateral. He should speak out but he is part of the reason we are here: too worried about transgender bathrooms and feel-good armchair liberalism than anything else.
16
@Scott
Only Republicans are worried about transgender bathrooms. The rest of us just want to get on with our lives, and be allowed to do so.
160
@Scott
You mean destroying "the Clintons" (= allowing them to continue to earn millions outside of DC) was so important for you that you actively voted for a candidate and president vowing to destroy Obamacare, even though Obamacare literally saves 40,000 American lives a YEAR (= soon half a million ... ) ?!?
That's the price you decided to pay for the fact that the DNC invested more energy and time and money in promoting its own candidate rather than an Independent whose agenda you preferred but was EXACTLY the opposite of the Trump agenda ... ?
And then we're not even talking yet about the fact that it IS the Bush era GOP establishment guys that are running DC today while Trump is golfing and tweeting and not achieving one single item on his campaign platform list that distinguished him from the other GOPe candidates ... ?
Not having the government meddling into social issues that should be up to any citizen as an individual to decide is important and something only Democrats defend.
But they achieved SO much more under Obama, and you decided to destroy all that just because you don't like Hillary ... ?
Are you aware of the completely counterproductive results of your voting behavior?
The only truly efficient way to turn the DNC into a more progressive political party, as a citizen, is to roll up your sleeves and turn this country into a more progressive place first. In a democracy, there are no shortcuts or silver bullets, remember?
18
@Scott They seem like pretty poor reasons for voting for a man with NO redeeming qualities. It appears to me that your trying to justify a vote you made that now looks foolish.
16
When we look at that 3.9% number, I have a few questions.
Were the people who were laid off in the last ten years absorbed back at the same salaries they left? Are the new jobs created higher income, stable middle class jobs with benefits? Is the market burning high because of productivity or because it is a place to park foreign investment? Is our growth based on debt - student debt, consumer debt, mortgage debt, and if so is that debt stable, or a reason to fear another collapse?
Is the middle class safe from the next market downturn?
Most downturns take about 10 - 15 years to recover from. Look at history; look at Japan which was an ignored harbinger of 2008. Trump so far has not been able to mess up the trajectory built from the first steps taken by Bush and the steps taken under Obama. But he has tried, with tariffs and undercutting healthcare, and reducing market protections on investments.
Big pictures and long term thinking are not American strong points. We will blame the price of gas on the President and give him credit for things he has not controlled.
127
The hubris and ego form Obama and Trump is mind blowing. Leadership is important but no more so than the sweat and toil of millions of citizens who work everyday to improve the lot of themselves and their neighbours. The economy is us.
9
@Gord Lehmann
So when the economy was shedding 700,000 jobs a month, as was the case when Obama was sworn in, that too was your fault ... ?
What you're saying here doesn't make any sense. The US has the biggest economy in the world even though it makes up only 6% of the world's population.
That's not only because ordinary citizens work hard (they do so in many other countries too), it's because of the way the economy is structured here, and THAT is the direct result of the laws that were passed in DC.
In 2009, the non partisan CBO showed that Obama's Recovery Act would turn a -8% GDP into a decade-long steady economic growth and lowering unemployment rate.
That's objective science, and has nothing to do with ego - it's actually quite the opposite: it's BECAUSE Obama had the guts to put ego aside and base his policies on science instead that he has been able to get us out of the Great Recession and 10 million Americans back to work again.
Conclusion: you need both leaders who understand that policies based on proven truths are crucial to the well-being of this country, and ordinary citizens who work hard. If not, those hard-working citizens will lose their jobs and America loses its greatness as a country. Remembering this, as Obama is doing today, is vitally important, especially when the new boss in town only cares about ego and personal power.
11
Wall Street loves deregulation so it’s no surprise certain sectors are up and the economy is doing “well” in that regard...it’s like watching a bunch of hamsters in Brooks Brothers suits binge on Monster Energy drink and donuts - not gonna end well...
And the Trump Tariff War of 2018 has plenty of losers - especially companies that must resort to using American made steel and aluminum at a much higher cost...and then there’s also that troubling lack of wage growth; just ask any government employee about the cost of living increase Trump just declined to authorize.
28
A good metaphor for the current situation is an endless relay. When Obama was elected our team was trailing, but he sped along and put us in the lead. Trump has maintained the lead, but he may have spent to much energy (tax cut) early in the race causing our team to lose ground before his leg is completed. The fans watching the race may not be discerning enough to see what is happening though.
21
Trump's tax cuts are beneficial... to the rich, and the rich only. It will not help any poor person. It will not benefit any Trump supporters (majority of them are poor old white men, remember?). This just proves how Trump supporters do not listen to facts. They're shooting themselves on the foot (to be fair, they've done this a lot in recent years).
39
@Sihoo Park
"Trump's tax cuts are beneficial... to the rich, and the rich only."
**********
This is a myth. They benefit the middle class, especially families with a few kids, and small businesses. The latter is critical for growth and employment.
When they manage to win elections, one thing that Democrats are really, really good at is cleaning up the economic messes made by Republicans that are created using the same old simple formula: lower taxes on corporations and the rich and soaring deficits. And once again, it will be the task of another Democrat in 2020 to mop up after Trump’s financial disaster. And after that, Republicans will take credit once again for the great Democratic economy. Wash, rinse, repeat. I’m happy that for once, a Democrat is getting up and saying, “We’re not gonna take it anymore.”
107
Notwithstanding who can take credit for it, with the economy taking off we would be well advised to take advantage of our bounty and put some of it away to shield and prepare ourselves for the next phase of the business cycle, i.e., the inevitable crash.
12
This is a joke isn't it ?
The worst recovery ever under Obama and Obama wants to now make us think he created this current economic atmoshere . Sorry Barack, get lost . I could list all the major mistakes Obama made, but why bother, each and everyone of you know this is Trump's economic super economy.
No one else's, you want to go back to the malaise and stagnation we had under Obama ? I don't, he was as bad for the economy as Jimmy Carter was. Just say no to socialism.
18
@Tom, I live in NY tri state area and worked in the corporate side of the apparel industry. I was laid off in December and I am still unemployed. I am not feeling this GREAT economy nor are most of my family and friends. The cost of living is exorbitant and wages are not rising. How is this a good economy?
9
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman
Trump's "super economy" is a simple continuation of the previous 7-8 years. The graph is almost a perfectly straight line. What Obama started, Trump is continuing. Trunmp gets credit for keeping the recovery going full steam, but he doesn't get to claim he caused it. He's pinch running from third base and is claiming he hit the triple. Doesn't work that way.
4
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman
Actually, I think a good exercise for you would be to list those major mistakes of Obama. I suspect they may fall under the "alternative facts" category.
Here are some concrete accomplishments. Keep in mind that he inherited an economy on it's way to the worst economic downturn since the great recession. And he had to fight Republicans tooth and nail to get any kind of stimulus going.
-- Economy gained 11.6 million jobs
-- Weekly earnings increased 4 percent after inflation.
-- S&P rose 166 percent
-- unemployment rate dropped below historic norm
9
President Obama finally woke up. A bit too late. He had eight years to fix the economy, but nothing happen under his watch, excepts the passing of a few identity laws. President Trump deserves the credit for this economy. Sorry, Mr. Obama.
15
@Rosa Maria I was going to write a response about how Trump supporters like you continue to ignore all evidence to the contrary and mindlessly support Trump's positions no matter how absurd, but after re-reading your post I see that is self-evident.
3
He had 8 years to do something, so he did. Your comment suggests you think the economy was in the same or worse state in 2016 than in 2008, right?
The plight of many Americans: Often mistaken, never in doubt.
5
Mr. Obama is taking the proverbial "low road" by trying to personally claim ownership of the successful economy. One would reasonably think that he should be happy with the economy rather than trying to hijack the credit. Most likely he's upset that his ego will be deflated because Mr. Trump's multiple successes will overshadow Mr. Obama's 8 years in office. Some presidents are just better than others.
11
@MarathonRunner: And as a Trump deplorable, you give credit where it is not due. Some presidents are better than others. In Trump's case, they are all better.
6
The low road is claiming the North Korean nuclear threat is over, and that we can all sleep safer in our beds, and then taking it back a few days later.
3
@MarathonRunner
Look where the economy was in January 2009 and where it was in January 2016.
Stop listening to Trump. and start paying attention to facts. You are repeating political slogans not presenting a rational argument. There is a conservative point of view that is reasonable and is not a misrepresentation of history.
Anyone who knows anything about economic cycles (and Trump clearly doesn't) knows that they tend to run in one direction or the other for years. Trump has been around 2 years and this up cycle has been in motion since the crash of 2007, beginning around 2012. The Republicans brought about that crash with an era of lack of oversight on the banking industry. Thanks to George Bush, former Yale cheerleader, to be specific. That cycle took several years to turn around and Obama was president during the upturn, well into the recovery and into the current boom cycle. Trump had nothing to do with it. An economic cycle takes years, 6-10 or more. Seeds for the current boom were sewn in a democratically controlled Whitehouse.
What will happen is that Trump will be voted out in 2020 and the economy will go through its next cycle and he'll no doubt claim it's because he's not in charge. This despite the fact that economic cycles often have nothing to do with the administration in control but have to do with the policies enacted by the previous administration. Trump's tariffs, his botched interventions to keep jobs in the US like Carrier, and attempted rescue of ridiculous outdated industries like coal which cost taxpayers a fortune, will come home to roost in a downturn and he'll claim it wasn't him. Sickening.
313
@Paxinmano. It isn’t just Trump. The entire Republican team is constantly complaining AND obstructing when a Democrat is in the White House. Thanks to the CU decision can now be actively intervening in a nationally organized fashion to disenfranchise millions of Democratic voters in order to maintain their hold on political power. Money is no object for them.
President Obama's recovery was based on a solid economic plan. Trump's economy is based on injecting a trillion tax dollars into the private marketplace (most of which are going to the wealthiest 1% and corporations). Obama's economic plans would have continued to lift all of us in a steady increase of earnings. Trump's is more likely to blow us into an inflationary rage. I need to point out also that Trump's tariffs are a tax on the lower and middle classes. The cost of all of our goods will be increasing due to his insistence that he can bargain a better deal with our trading partners. That income tax break you may have gotten is about to disappear. Trump and his Republican backers are waging economic war on the people of America at the behest of their wealthy patrons.
443
@Patrick Stevens
What was Obama's economic plan? Can you describe it? Which policies or directives by Obama could be attributed to our current booming economy?
2
The Obama administration was happily planning to displace tens of thousands of US STEM workers each year using the badly abused H1b, L1 and B1 visas - and increase that number wherever possible.
For all the complaints about Trump, we can all admit he is not deliberately trying to destroy the careers of Americans.
1
@Patrick Stevens
Not just disappear. The net gain is going to be negative. The tax bill is a loss for the vast majority of Americans when you look at Trump policy holistically.
What's disgraceful is the rhetoric and the untruth that any policy matter that might involve change to hopefully promote the well being of the country reflects "a war on business" or is "anti-business" as though the impact on business or even a mall segment of businesses is the ONLY thing that matters. This is also true of other critiques that claim a policy is "anti" woman, Christian, etc. etc. While debate about issues is a good thing, such blanket accusations do nothing to advance the discourse and in fact cloud the reality.
3
Trump's tax cuts have not really meant much to the economy. They were a Republican give away to the millionaires and billionaires and corporations which have blown it by buying back stock when they could have invested in reseach and development as well as jobs and paying down debt. The trickle down theory of Republican economics has not worked, just as it has not worked in the past. Yes I got a tax cut, but I would have preferred to not get one as we are only borrowing from our grandchildren who will have to pay it back to keep the country solvent.
30
I mark January 1, 2018 as the official end of Obama's economy and the beginning of the next economic crash trajectory.
Few supporting reasons:
1) corporate taxes were reduced by one third
1.1) creates artificial step increase in corporate performance without an actual increase in performance.
1.2) money was used for stock buybacks, not for investment or wage increases
1.3) huge government borrowing (from China?) to make up for lost tax revenues.
2) revoke Volcker rule, allows for propriety trading (gambling) with FDIC insured depositors savings by a few rich guys with access. This (combined with buybacks) is inflating another market bubble.
3) raised taxes (aka tariffs) on the middle class, which caused frontloading, another temporary bump in the economy.
4) two thirds of GDP is consumer spending, raised taxes (tariffs) places a huge drag on this.
The market is not the economy of course. The run up in the market (approx 8% ?) is not correlated with the economy (4.2%). The recent 4.2% number in the economy is dismal given factors enumerated above. Since it is not possible to time the market or the economy, it is impossible to know when the next crash will occur, but we are certainly on the trajectory.
52
Regarding people’s confidence in the economy, so much of that is based on perception and not one’s personal reality. With a large segment of US society getting information from puffed up, bragging tweets that declare the best economy in history, it seems they’ve internalized the message. Never mind that the GOP tax cut was a hand out for a small percentage of wealthy people & corporations, who didn’t really need the taxpayer-funded help, and income inequity will further erode the country’s middle class. Never mind that growth founded on those principles is unsustainable. At a certain point much comes down to perception and people are very susceptible to being sold a rotten bill of goods, as long as it makes them feel like their side is winning.
44
This tax cut has not helped most Americans, in fact this tax cut will hurt most in the long run due to the fact of our rising national deficit while less money comes into the treasury. What will happen is a raid again on the middle class in the future to lower the deficit. The economy should not be looked at in the short term but rather the long term and when Obama did take office it was a mess and even without assistance from the Republicans in many cases his administration grew it. Just some food for thought!
36
Obama inherited an economy that was considered to be in the greatest recession since the great depression. The financial markets were collapsing, the housing market was collapsing the automobile industry was on the brink of bankruptcy.
So, Obama passed an economic stimulus plan that invested $360 Billion into our economy for two years. The Republicans howled, "how can we afford to spend that much?" We did and our economy recovered, growing faster and faster from 2009 through 2016.
Trump inherited an economy that had set records for job growth, an economy on fire, possibly at the end of it's cycle of growth. The Republican led house and senate then passed a massive stimulus spending bill, $200 Billion per year in tax cuts for corporations and the 1% who own them; and, $150 Billion in additional spending for the military and social programs. That $350 Billion per year in stimulus spending was like gasoline thrown into a fire, just to watch it burn. Not one Republican asked "how can we afford to spend that much?"
The Trump stimulus is giving us a sugar high the GOP is using to try to hold onto power for one more election cycle. But, those of us who have seen this same strategy used by Reagan and George W Bush, we know it doesn't end well.
160
Here's what I understand: the economy of a country can be likened to a very large ship at sea. It takes time to turn the thing around. Changes you put in place now will only have an impact 6 months to a year down the road. Which would indicate that we are still seeing the results of the Obama administration's actions in turning the US economy around. Trump's actions meanwhile are only just now starting to have an effect. Methinks that while some are arguably positive in the short term, like tax cuts, the gaping hole in the fiscus is going to be a rough one to fill for whoever comes next. And that little trade war with China? That has yet to show its true impact on the US economy and I can't imagine it's going to be positive.
26
Many economists suggest the waiting period on economic impact is more like 18 months to 2 years, but otherwise I think your comments are spot-on.
6
trump, as president and in everything he did in his life, is the embodiment of that old saying about somebody “who was born on third base but thinks he hit a triple”. his claims about the economy fit perfectly with that.
266
Guillermo: G R E A T Analogy! Unlike real pinch runners, 45 stands preening on 3rd looking "great" again.
1
If you tout deregulation as a factor in the economic growth, then you are accepting of the devastating effects it has our health and the environment.
98
Trump's newest casino is the US economy, and he is taking it to the same fate he took the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump University, Trump Airlines, and all of the other countless failed ventures he has embarked on with his father's money (ever heard of TrumpNet? Trump Steaks? GoTrump.com? --nobody else has either -- all failed within three years of startup.)
He is a snake oil salesman, and he is taking credit for an economy he has played no part in creating.
His tariffs, combined with cyclical inflation, however, will provide a recession in 2019 that he will blame on the Democrats.
And about half the country will believe him and vote for him again in 2020 if he is not impeached or locked up before then.
213
@Chester200
Not half. He got 24% of the country in 2016. His image has not improved since then. We'll see what happens when tariffs start really hurting the areas where his base is concentrated, as well as the mega-businesses that normally back Republicans.
6
Even when Trump is hell bent on destroying every trace of the Obama legacy, what he finds most irresistible is his legacy of the post-recession US economic recovery which he will love to own for himself.
22
Some times its the bully predator that gets victimized and the rules of engagement may take the worst effect and so, and here it goes: the victimized and bruised Obama is the top political predator bully or the tormentor. The future is yet to be seen as each contender/bully take the positions to take the best shot at Trump. The bully or the tormentor referred here is the spoiler. Will trump fall a victim to such a tormentor?-will he succumb and fall? or will he come out the winner?
I think Obama's super cool no problem Obama has been problematic for 44. For almost to years Obama has sat on the sidelines and let Trump beat him up with no response. The talk was former presidents stay out of the way of other presidents so rule-abiding Obama sat and took his licks. What Trump did to Obama and his legacy was unprecendented and Obama should have realized that early on. Trump has drove the narrative of Obama as a weak ineffective black man and it has stuck with Trump's receptive base. Can Obama put the Genie back in the bottle? The world hopes he can
53
@Steven McCain The rules for blacks are different. When they stand up for themselves, blacks are considered “angry” “thugs” and “predators.” When whites stand up for themselves, even when they are just bullying others more than anything else, whites are “standing their ground.” Most of the responses to Obama’s actions that the press cared about were from angry whites. And most of his years were spent dealing with the racism on Capitol Hill and among the American people while trying to steer us out W’s mess. No one lifted a finger to help.
I am done with people criticizing Obama’s response to racism. Why don’t we just criticize the racists?
158
@Kat the rules for blacks are different because we accept it. When you have to fight you fight regardless of the hue of your skin. Few on The Left defended Obama but we were foolish to think they would with zeal. So to tell him now he should temper his response to Trump is just another way to be paternal to a black man. There are different rules because we allow it. It is time to throw the ruile book out and the way you do that is to vote. I have never had the so called conversations with my sons telling them they have to behave a certain way around authority and i never will. I tell my sons to comport theirselves in the way I have taught them to be Men.
@Kat I've always said that the rejection of Obama was due to his race! The man has shown more class than anyone else in speaking out!
Remember the republicans said they'd do everything they could to block Obama when he took office.
If working for the good of the country is what our representatives are supposed to be elected to do what else than racism could this statement respresent?
1
Barack Obama must be feeling really embarrassed on a daily basis with all of Trumps wins. President Obama forced the largest tax increase in history on US citizens and businesses right in the middle of a recession. Then he said "those shovel ready jobs weren't so shovel ready" joking about how he spent a Trillion dollars and got nothing. Obama excelled at kicking the can down the road.
12
@P McGrath
Great narrative, but not true. Obama got us out of the Great Recession created by Bush even with a Republican Congress that was determined to make him fail. We had eight years of economic growth and rising stock prices before Trump was elected.
44
@P McGrath
The actual verifiable facts cited in the article totally contradict your claims. Your opinion is meaningless without supporting evidence to back it up.
There is truth, and it does not agree with you.
9
We wasted a tax cut on the rich instead of repairing our infrastructure which would have created thousands of blue collar U.S. jobs. During three weeks of driving Norway and Sweden this summer, I did not see a pothole. They build to last. Norway is continually drilling road tunnels through its mountains to ease driving. Where will our money to rebuild our roads and bridges come from? Oh yes, our super patriotic country will raid Medicare and Social Security.
463
@Phyllis Mazik - “We wasted a tax cut on the rich instead of repairing our infrastructure which would have created thousands of blue collar U.S. jobs.”
Sounds like what we wasted was $1 trillion dollars in stimulus funds. Shovel ready jobs and all. Michigan’s roads are an embarrassment, but Solyndra got $400 mm in tax payer funds to, well, go bankrupt. Great plan.
3
@Midwest Josh Republicans love to hate government and do everything they can to hamstring it and then turn around and complain that it hasn't helped them. C'mon you hearty, go-it-alone, rugged individualists, get out there and pave your own roads!
The program that funded Solyndra actually made the taxpayers $5 billion according the Bloomberg.
1
@Phyllis Mazik Considering how deep the ground freezes in Nordic countries, the roadbeds must be dig deeper and constructed to accommodate very low temperatures. Their summers are less extreme that in the US, too. It's simply a matter of construction standards and not necessarily their government. There are roads in many parts of the US that are very good.
The reason the economy came out of the tank is because of the tax and regulation reduction, period. The president that cause most of the tax and regulation is Obama and the president that took away those burdens was Trump. Obama saying the economy is back because of him it like a disease saying it was part of the cure.
7
@David G If as you say deregulation (of toxic chemicals that affect our health and the environment) is one of the driving forces of economic growth, then I as a parent and grandparent say, I don't want that "deal." Sure I like the extra $$ in my savings, but love my family's health and the planet we live on more.
39
@David G So why did the tax cuts and deregulation not work during the W years? Seems like they contributed to the mess W left more than anything.
43
Any decent person sees that. Unless you’re saving imminent risk of death or not being able to save your family, the only other motive is greed. The factory owners are not in risk of being hungry...
2
If the economy is doing well (as President Trump claims), then there is no justification for President Trump issuing tariff taxes unilaterally due to "national emergency" (as President Trump claims). Congress should approve all tariff taxes.
57
I’m a historian. No, we do not attribute the state of the economy to the actions of a president, because there is such a weak causal relationship between the two. Journalists on the other hand.....
Anyway, Obama oversaw a period of the rich getting richer and everyone else getting poorer. Trump is overseeing, and accelerating, the same. Both deserve the deepest scorn and nothing more.
4
@KWThe Sorry if you think doing good for yourself is bad. In America we look to ourselves to do better not to put out our hand and ask politely to the Government.
1
@David G Got it! As long as I'm OK nothing else matters.
4
@KW
No, KW. The congressional Republicans their megadonors deserve our deepest scorn. Stop with the false equivalence and misdirection. VOTE BLUE up and down the ticket if you don't like income inequality.
1
Just maybe had Republicans not been so hell-bent on making President Obama a one term president things would have been better. But, that can't ever be remembered or mentioned in articles like these.
Also, I would just like to know who Gallup surveys and who can actually add and subtract anymore. My son-in-law just got a quote for car insurance in Florida, $250.00 a month and that is for liability only on a 15 year old truck. Rent costs on average $600.00 a month. Gas just keeps going up, food just costs more and more, electricity is higher, wages just don't budge. He still lives in my home because he cannot afford these costs. I pay for most of their living expenses just so he can afford to go to work! Confidence is up? Just who are they talking to?
I am tired of all these polls being mentioned when I, nor anyone single person I know across the country is ever polled. This information is quoted and repeated endlessly when in my experience it makes no mathematical sense. Who are they talking about because most people I know are stuck. My daughter-in-law's mother has worked for Walmart for 20 years, she will never get another raise but her cost of living goes up.
355
@Catherine
There are really two economies in the USA (and in Britain ). The economy you describe applies to about 90% of the population with a total growth of zero. All the growth in the economy has gone to the already rich.
I am comfortably retired with a pension which after tax is increasing at less than inflation but the lump sum I invested on retirement has for years been growing at an average of 6.8% not taxed. This illustrates the difference between the income of the people and the investments of the rich.
9
Mitch McConnell should have been impeached. His goal was to be the majority leader and ignore all legislative bills. He took an oath to legislate and ignored the infrastructure bills put forth. He is mostly to blame for the state of our affairs- biggest phony ever.
17
@Catherine
[Numbers in thousands]
Civilian labor force
July 2018: 162,245
Aug. 2018: 161,776
Change: -469
Employed
July 2018: 155,965
Aug. 2018: 155,542
Change: -423
Unemployment rate
July 2018: 3.9%
Aug. 2018: 3.9%
Source:
Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm
Note:
The number of people employed in August 2018 dropped by 423,000 compared to July 2018.
The only reason the unemployment rate held steady at 3.9% is that the “Civilian labor force” dropped by 469,000.
If the labor force had continued to grow at its historic 1.1% annual rate the “Unemployment rate” would have increased to 4.2%
I am not a Trump fan, but good point about his ability to sell snakeoil. It's not good for then, but people will buy it.
30