In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped…
In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped…
As they devise a strategy to place a tax bill on President Trump’s desk, Republicans in Congress are grappling with thorny issues: What can pass the Senate? How much should they add to the deficit? How will tax changes play with voters in 2018?
What is the most important number in the Trump presidency?
President Obama got a fair amount of good press a few weeks ago when it was reported that Americans' incomes had risen. But that was from 2014 to 2015. During 2016, Americans' incomes have dropped.
We are having two crises. One is in the boardroom of the Federal Reserve system. In a speech to her central bank colleagues at Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen was believed by others than this writer to say that she was preparing to raise interest rates, subject of course to…
The recent release of anemic quarterly economic-growth numbers for 2016 has revived the debate over the Obama economy. Some say it has been okay; some say it has been lousy. In truth, the economy under President Barack Obama has been historically bad. How bad? Adjusted for inflation, average yearly…
In 1965 the average CEO earned 20 times what the average worker took home. Now, with globalization expanding the reach of CEOs and depressing the wages of factory-floor workers, that ratio is over 300-to-1. This rise in inequality has caused critics of the American capitalist system to begin to…
The festival of Philadelphia celebrated the wonderful present and the even more fantastic future and the festivities went on well into the night. Then came morning and a bucket of cold water from the Commerce Department.
So we will not add to the world's Brexit woes by having a recession here in America. At least not soon. The U.S. economy added 287,000 jobs in June, compared with a meager 11,000 in May (revised down yesterday from 38,000). Since we are deep into the political season, cheers from the Obama-Clinton…
It didn't take Brexit to make forecasters take a dim view of the future of the U.S. economy. A cloud considerably larger than a man's hand hovered over the computers of most forecasters before Brexit shocked markets into a deep but transient swoon. The Federal Reserve Board said it dare not raise…
The subject of debt – how much and how tolerable – slipped into the shadows for a time. But yesterday, it reappeared. As Rebecca Shabad of the Hill reports:
On Friday we learned that the U.S. economy surprised on the upside by adding 280,000 new jobs in May, and that 32,000 more jobs had been created in March and April than originally reported. The fact that economic growth is still sluggish, while more and more workers are finding jobs, suggests that…
Let’s say that next Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with a really handsome non-farm-payrolls report. Something close to 300,000 new jobs and a decline in the unemployment rate by a couple of tenths of a point. How do you suppose the president and his staff would deal with the news?
Last week’s surprising report that the value of all the goods and services produced in America did not grow in the first quarter, which will be subject to two revisions as firmer data come in, tells us one of two things. Either the American economy has stopped growing, or the GDP figures, which…
The Democrats have finally decided on the fair, just minimum wage -- $12 per hour. But they fail to make one important point in favor of their demand. Recall the tale of the diligent robbers who spend a weekend drilling into the vault of a posh jeweler, making off with millions in bling for their…
The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky is celebrating this April 15 by declaring that America is “the most undertaxed advanced country in the world.” He claims that this chart offers proof of his assertion.
The economy did not grow as robustly in the 4th quarter as had been thought. Bloomberg reports that:
Listen to the president, his staff, and his supporters and you might be ready to believe that the economy is on a rocket ride to prosperity. More jobs, lower gas prices, increased consumer spending. So now, at last, we can afford to do away with sequestration and other implements of austerity.…
Two weeks ago the Commerce Department released its final estimate of Gross Domestic Product for the second quarter. That marked five years since the recession ended—a period of massive experimentation with expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. While those policies were doubtless well intended,…
Jeanna Smialek and Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports that:
The numbers on 1st quarter GDP are, in a word, dismal. An economy that had been limping along came nearly to a standstill. As Jeanna Smialek of Bloomberg reports:
One day after the president declared war on coal and committed his administration to making electricity – and, thus, just about everything else – more expensive, the 1st quarter GDP growth figures were revised down from a tepid 2.4 percent to an anemic 1.8 percent.
The burgeoning deficit has stopped burgeoning, at least for now. So Republican plans to attack the profligate president and to use the debt ceiling as a weapon to get more spending cuts can be shelved. Conservative deficit hawks should turn to a more immediate and important task—devising policies…
Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were predicting that we would learn, this morning, that Gross Domestic Product had grown by 3.2 percent in the last quarter. Sorry about that; the economy said as the number came in at 2.5 percent.
We had been hearing talk of an economy that was picking up steam and a recovery that was, at last, on track. Now, it appears that recovery has stalled. Or worse. Bloomberg reports that in last year's fourth quarter:
There are two U.S. economies. Well, not really. But there is the economy reported in the New York Times as part of its pre-election coverage, and far different one reported in the authoritative financial press.
The average GDP growth for the first three quarters of this year is 1.77 percent, according to data released by the the Bureau of Economic Analysis this morning. That is less than half of what the White House predicted GDP growth would be this year, and less than a third of what the Obama…
Zerohedge reports on the latest GDP numbers:
Yesterday, I noted that we have generally had our strongest periods of economic growth coming out of our deepest recessions, and I compared FDR and Obama in this vein. Another good comparison is a more recent one — between Obama and President Reagan.
The May jobs report came out today and showed an economy barely adding any jobs: Just 69,000 were added last month, and the unemployment rate increased. This follows news yesterday that GDP was revised downward for the first quarter, and a report today that real incomes remain essentially unchanged.
Reuters: "Growth anemic, debt row poses recession risk"
Reuters reports on the latest bad economic news:
Eugene Robinson is outrageously outraged over Republican perfidy:
On Meet the Press, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said that “political courage on the Republican side means taking on the revenue piece” of the deficit equation. In other words, it requires Republicans to support raising taxes. Time’s Mike Murphy and…