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Lawrence Summers: Trump doesn’t deserve credit for all the economic good news
Washington Post ^ | 01/22/2018 | By Lawrence H. Summers

Posted on 01/22/2018 2:15:40 PM PST by SeekAndFind

President Trump will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Inevitably, attention will focus on whether the president projects a commitment to internationalist values or reiterates his truculent nationalism in the name of making America “great again.” Attention will also focus on the durability of the current economic and market upswing that has buoyed the spirits of businesses and investors around the world.

While Trump will probably try to take credit for all the economic good news, it is unlikely that he deserves it. He is president of the United States, not the world. And the economic surprises in the rest of the world have been more favorable than those in America. The scale of upward revisions of growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018 has been higher in Europe, Japan, China and emerging markets broadly than for the United States. Many other stock markets have outperformed those here.

If Trump’s pro-business policies were driving global economy, one would expect an increase in net capital flows into the United States, and so a stronger dollar. In fact, the dollar has weakened significantly in the past year, despite more Federal Reserve tightening than was anticipated at the beginning of 2017.

In the late 1990s and again in 2006, I remarked that “the main thing we have to fear is lack of fear itself.” Today there is an undercurrent of geopolitical concern not present at those times. Yet, there are important similarities between the situations then and now, as households and businesses come to fear missing out on good things more than getting caught up in irrational exuberance. Complacency about the economy can be a self-denying prophecy when it leads to excessive valuations, lending and spending. We are surely closer to such a point than we were a year ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: districtofcolumbia; economy; fuls; incometaxes; lawrencesummers; morewinning; summers; taxcutsandjobsact; taxreform; tcja; trump; usualsuspect; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: SeekAndFind

But obama would have gotten it if this had happened during his presidency.


21 posted on 01/22/2018 2:43:36 PM PST by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: MNDude

The Left is indirectly admitting the economy stunk under Obama by trying to steal the credit today.


22 posted on 01/22/2018 2:45:10 PM PST by CommieCutter ("Trump is god emperor and he will win." -- some hacker)
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To: M Kehoe

Almost as fun as when the Democrats tried to claim that oral sex wasn’t sex during the Clinton impeachment hearings.


23 posted on 01/22/2018 2:45:31 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: fhayek

Absolutely. If the stock market had crashed in February of 2017 they would have blamed it on Trump.

I remember the stock market diving in 2000 and liberals were blaming Bush during the 2000 campaign.


24 posted on 01/22/2018 2:48:30 PM PST by CommieCutter ("Trump is god emperor and he will win." -- some hacker)
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To: SeekAndFind

Nice try, Larry, but the president actions have a HUGE EFFECT on the economy. An article yesterday mentioned that the EPA will try to approve permits for Texas in 6 months, rather than 18 months (under Obama and predecessors) - that alone has a huge effect.


25 posted on 01/22/2018 2:49:00 PM PST by BobL (I shop at Walmart...I just don't tell anyone)
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To: litehaus
“How Larry Summers lost Harvard $1.8 billion”

That was Summers (& overseers)? I just remember that the school was pulling a Walter Matthau ("A New Leaf") spending principle after the endowment fund managers were warning and predicting lower investment income.

The liberal school president's disease: Building extremely expensive useless/unnecessary edifices to one's self for no apparent reason other than ego and bragging rights.

26 posted on 01/22/2018 2:49:42 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: SeekAndFind

Keep spinning Larry.


27 posted on 01/22/2018 2:50:56 PM PST by Renkluaf
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To: SeekAndFind
It's true, the fact that 0bama is no longer prez and Hillary lost must be worth something.

28 posted on 01/22/2018 2:51:14 PM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: daviscupper

“Just another flatulent spouting academic who still has not gotten over the election. “

He’s an academic. That explains his ignorance on things he believes he know a lot about. He should just ask Krugman what it all means.


29 posted on 01/22/2018 2:52:18 PM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Death of the MSM - "Because it is my show and I don't want to do that." Jake Tapper)
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To: dhs12345

shut up, Larry...you are a fool:

Trump tax cuts lifting world economy: IMF
The Australian-8 hours ago

IMF Says Global Growth Picking Up as US Tax Cuts Take Hold
Bloomberg· 8h ago

IMF raises global growth forecast, sees Trump tax boost
Reuters· 5h ago

22 Jan: EuroNews: Davos 2018: What to expect this year
By Cristina Abellan Matamoros
Here’s what to expect from the 48th World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
The environment does matter
Another big area of discussion will be the environment and establishing how to meet the commitments set out by the Paris climate agreement to limit global warming...
http://www.euronews.com/2018/01/22/davos-2018-what-to-expect-this-year

22 Jan: Bloomberg: Heavy Snowfall Disrupts Davos
By Jan Dahinten
Presentations by ABB and UBS hit as road traffic halted
Swiss resort faces high risk of avalanches, institute says
The World Economic Forum was disrupted as the heaviest snowfall in the annual meeting’s 48-year history delayed the arrival of executives at the Swiss resort...

Traffic on the road leading up to Europe’s highest town came to a standstill, forcing Swiss engineering group ABB Ltd. to cancel the appearance of its Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer at a media briefing about sustainable transport. The late arrival of equipment also caused Swiss bank UBS Group AG to delay a presentation, while the gathering’s official opening was half an hour behind schedule...

“We have a lot problems with the snow,” the town’s mayor Tarzisius Caviezel told reporters on Monday. “In the past 48 hours came more than 2 meters of snow and that’s a big problem because we have to transport the snow out of Davos.”

Caviezel said authorities had tried to trigger avalanches in the surrounding area earlier in the day by using helicopters to set off controlled explosions, but only two out of 10 attempts had been successful...

Snow depths in Davos reached 1.75 meters (5.7 feet) on Monday, the most for the Jan. 15 to Jan. 25 period since 1951 and the second-highest since records began in 1931, said Stephan Bader, a climatologist at the Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology...

Local newspaper Suedostschweiz reported on its website that Davos’s local council rejected a bid by the Social Democrats and Young Socialists to hold an anti-Trump protest during the U.S. president’s planned visit on Thursday. Officials cited a lack of space due to the large amounts of snow on the town’s roads and squares, the newspaper said...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-22/davos-disrupted-as-executives-gather-amid-snowiest-ever-meeting


30 posted on 01/22/2018 2:52:20 PM PST by MAGAthon
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Economists in Agreement on Trump, not Obama, Getting the Credit for Recent Economic Gains
31 posted on 01/22/2018 2:54:35 PM PST by KavMan
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To: SeekAndFind
Complacency about the economy can be a self-denying prophecy when it leads to excessive valuations, lending and spending. We are surely closer to such a point than we were a year ago.
Not so surely, Shirley. The tax cut has infused almost ¼ Trillion into the US just in AAPL profits alone into the US. And although AAPL is the biggest single company, AAPL will not be alone. And, "a trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, pretty soon you’re talking real money."
the economic surprises in the rest of the world have been more favorable than those in America. The scale of upward revisions of growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018 has been higher in Europe, Japan, China and emerging markets broadly than for the United States. Many other stock markets have outperformed those here.
Granted, for the sake of argument. But if such be the case with ¼ Trillion in AAPL profits infused into the US (and drawn from the countries where AAPL booked the profits), whatever would the correlation of US stock price increases to foreign stock price increases have been without that transfer???

And "but me no buts" about AAPL “repatriating” (actually “patriating,” in that the money didn’t come from America in the first place) without the Trump tax law. It wasn’t gonna happen without the law, and it had to happen after it - on simple grounds of fiduciary responsibility to AAPL shareholders. The law provides a one-time good deal on the taxation of repatriated profits, this year only. And the board of directors of any company holding a lot of cash overseas, such as AAPL in particular, would have its socks sued off by shareholders if it did not repatriate most of the money.


32 posted on 01/22/2018 2:56:18 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (Presses can be 'associated,' or presses can be independent. Demand independent presses.)
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s the official lib talking point. Jessica Tarlov throws that in every once in a while — it’s Obama’s good economy. Of course, they don’t believe it but they have to say it.


33 posted on 01/22/2018 2:58:12 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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To: SeekAndFind

After doomsday pronouncements of the Dow never recovering because Trump was elected President its a bit late to argue that somehow his policies don’t impact the economy.


34 posted on 01/22/2018 3:04:17 PM PST by AndyTheBear
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To: MAGAthon
Lol. Sounds like Europe is getting hit with a snow storm... caused by global warming, no doubt, or is it global cooling, or is it climate change? Oh, never mind!

While the rest of the world is on the road to an economic boom. Well maybe not yet but it is a start.

35 posted on 01/22/2018 3:06:06 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: SeekAndFind

Summers is full of it!

A few facts.

The USA is responsible for consuming close to 25% of the ENTIRE WORLDS output of goods and services. Since we don’t produce this amount we must import it that means the rest of the world depends on us to buy what they produce.

The stronger our economy i.e.the more we buy the stronger will be other countries economies which supply our needs.

As far as market averages go, Summers should be aware investors always look 6-9 months down the road and try to guage where our growth will be before committing to investing. These investors banked on Trump’s very pro business, America First agenda becoming a reality and steadily bought shares throughout the year. This same thing happened all over the world as producing nations anticipated the sharp ramping up of their own industries.

The promise of lower corporate tax rates enticed multiple companies to bring their operations to America. Jack May (Ali Baba) intends to create 1 million jobs in America over 5 yrs, Toyota has said it will invest an additional 10 billion dollars in America after Trump was elected.Apple has committed to repatriating 350 BILLION in cash they have been holding overseas due to the very high corporate tax rates here and CEO Cook says Apple will create 20,000 new jobs in America over the next 5 yrs. There are many more but you get the idea.

It isn’t just the tax cuts attracting businesses here again it is the removing of profit squeezing regulations of the Obama yrs.

Summers knows all this but as a TDS captive is desperate to see Trump gets as little credit as possible.


36 posted on 01/22/2018 3:08:33 PM PST by billyboy15
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To: MayflowerMadam
As much as Obama owns the Banking Crisis. Obama liked to blame it on his predecessor.
37 posted on 01/22/2018 3:08:39 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: fhayek

Oh my you are RIGHT~! I had not thought of that angle~ I bet you a trillion bucks YOU ARE RIGHT~ Great Post~


38 posted on 01/22/2018 3:09:35 PM PST by buffyt (Planned Parenthood should be a No Kill facility ...save the dogs, kill the children...)
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To: Da Coyote

Dumber than a bag of hammers~ LOL


39 posted on 01/22/2018 3:10:07 PM PST by buffyt (Planned Parenthood should be a No Kill facility ...save the dogs, kill the children...)
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To: Calvin Locke

“The liberal school president’s disease: Building extremely expensive useless/unnecessary edifices to one’s self for no apparent reason other than ego and bragging rights.”

The liberal disease: Building extremely expensive useless/unnecessary edifices to one’s self for no apparent reason other than ego and bragging rights.


40 posted on 01/22/2018 3:10:29 PM PST by litehaus (A memory toooo long.............)
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