Some Economic Facts: Those Trump Ignores or Spins to Fit His False Fiery Speeches

Economic view: Depends on the size of one's political blinders

The economy is very good for sure, but not for everyone – let’s dig deeper with some data reported on here from Vox.com.

First of all back in July the economy clocked its 93rd uninterrupted month of job growth — the longest stretch in American history. 

Other positive key points as well as concerns:

1.  For the first time on record, there are more open jobs than job seekers.

2.  The unemployment rate is 3.9 percent (Note: The last time the unemployment rate was this low was in 2000 at the tail end of the Clinton boom).

3.  According to Gallup, 65% of Americans believe this is a good time to find a quality job; a number with the highest readings Gallup has recorded since they began asking that question in 2002.

4.  More people are without decent affordable healthcare.

5.  Many middle-class Americans can’t afford college for their kids and college tuition is sky-high.

6.  Mortgage rates are out of reach for millions.

7.  Trade tariff policy is hurting domestic producers despite the rhetoric from the White House otherwise – yet Trump employs a bailout for soybean producers (while blaming DEMS – routine ploy these days: deflect causes for bad news).

Plus, any cheerful economic news is largely absent from worker’s paychecks – cite:

1.  Average hourly wage growth has been 2.7% over the past year – actually anemic given the power and length of the economic expansion.

2.  Now making matters worse is again a surge of inflation and massive budget deficits – all driven by higher oil prices, etc. and that has clawed back almost all wage gains – even small ones.

However, the trends didn’t begin with Trump’s election.

The chart below shows what the new jobs rate has looked like since 2012 – note the sharp break between the Obama and Trump economies, which BTW Trump only paints in the negative all the time while fluffing himself – mostly falsely, too:

Hard to dispute the facts but Trump tries

The chart below looks at the unemployment rates since 2012 and GDP. 

It is easy to see that job growth since Trump was elected has been a bit slower or a bit faster than in the years preceding him, but it’s all clearly within the same trend – which he never acknowledges:

Trump will never admit to these numbers — goes against his toon

Summary that makes sense to most economists. They agree in principle about any economic lagging and how important the GDP is as a measurement of the economy's health:

1.    Income and Wages.

2.    Unemployment Rate.

3.    Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Inflation).

4.    Currency Strength.

5.    Interest Rates.

6.    Corporate Profits.

7.     Balance of Trade.

1. If we look at President Obama’s second term, 217,000 jobs a month were being added.

2. Since Trump assumed the presidency, some 189,000 jobs per month are being added.

Memo for Mr. Trump: Stop bragging about something you see now that was something that President Obama wasn’t doing all along since the near total economic meltdown in 2007-2008 time frame back during the George W. Bush final couple of years.

My 2 cents: A lot is presented here that Trump will never accept as true, however, the data does not lie.

If Mr. Trump is honest and wants to be presidential about all this, he might want to try some honesty himself. But, a Rick Perry oops won’t suffice and neither will another campaign rally with more false statements that play his own personal chest-thumping – won’t suffice, either.

Thanks for stopping by.