State Of The Economy

Bloomberg hasa good piece on the US economy under President Trump. Headline takeaway: on almost all metrics, the economy has improved or remained largely unchanged since he took office.From Q4 2016 to Q4 2017:-       GDP grew by 2.5 percent, the fastest annual increase since Q4 2015, and higher than the post-recession average of 2.2 percent.-       Real nonresidential investment increased by 6.3 percent, higher than the post-recession average of 4.8 percent and after falling in three of four quarters in 2016.-        Theunemployment rate fell from 4.7 to 4.1 percent, and is now its lowest since 2000.-        The unemployment rate for black and African-American workers fell to 6.8 percent, the lowest rate in the 45 years of recorded statistics.-        The25-54 civilian labor force participation rate crept up from 81.4 percent to 81.9 percent.-       Labor productivity grew by 1.5 percent, historically below the 2.1 percent post-war annual average, but above the post-crisis 1 percent average.The only really disappointing indicators for the President have been:-        Afall in real median weekly earnings (official statistics show a 1.1 percent increase to Q3 2017 but a large fall in Q4, such that there has now been a 1.1 percent decline overall)-        Awidening budget deficit to 3.4 percent of GDP.(Note: Bloomberg also chalks up an increase in manufacturing jobs as a “win”, but which sectors jobs come in should not concern ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs