The Donald’s Economy Is Barry’s Economy Is Junior’s Economy Is Slick Willie’s Economy…
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
– Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias” (1818)
I know what “acceleration” means.
And I’m quite confident I can identify a “breakout” on chart.
There’s nothing anything like either of those things happening with U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
And it’s more than 10 years after the worst recession of the postwar era.
We’ve seen no equal, opposite rebound. Indeed, we’re still treading below the pre-crisis expansion path.
We’ve been laboring like Sisyphus against monumental and growing domestic debt. And Wall Street has seduced CEOs into strip-mining Corporate America through financial engineering.
“Real final sales” is a pretty reliable measure of the domestic economy. It eliminates the short-term inventory fluctuations and export swings reflected in real GDP.
Real final sales growth averaged 2.9% per year from mid-2013 through the end of 2016. We did see two quarters above 4% annualized growth and another four above 3%.
MAGAistas, grab a seat. It’s time for some reality.
The Donald’s watch now covers six quarters of GDP reports. It includes the alleged gangbusters quarter that just ended and the storm-repair-driven bounce during the fourth quarter of 2017.
And…
Real final sales to domestic purchasers have grown by an average of 2.8% per year.
That’s not “great.” It’s “mediocre. Read More
