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Donald Trump Is Inheriting the Best Economy in a Generation Thanks to Obama
Fortune ^ | 12/06/2016 | Chris Matthews

Posted on 12/06/2016 9:48:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Thanks, Obama!

Donald Trump had a rocky campaign. And the transition has been bumpy as well. But he looks to be rolling onto the presidency on the smoothest economic path of any president in a long time.

Data ranging from wage and job growth to manufacturing-sector indicators show that Donald Trump is getting an economy in better shape than any new president in a generation. Take a look at the following four indicators to see just how fortunate the President-elect is:

GDP Growth

The only indicator that shows Trump inheriting a generally weaker economy than is typical is GDP growth. As you can see from the following chart, while Trump will assume management of a much stronger economy than Obama did eight years ago, GDP growth over the past year has been historically weak.

This fact is mitigated somewhat by a more slowly growing population, which leads to slower overall growth than a quickly growing population does. (Although even per capita measures of real GDP growth show the U.S. becoming richer at a slower pace.) And the fact that growth has been picking up recently. The economy grew at a 3.2% pace in the third quarter.

Wage Growth

Despite the good economy, voter surveys show that a good portion of Americans were unhappy with the economy. And that’s why GDP matters. It’s much more common for the typical American’s material situation to improve in an economy when overall GDP is growing quickly. So slow GDP growth has equally little or no raises. And that’s resulted in unhappy workers.

But that’s changing too. Recently there’s evidence that growth in wages in outpacing growth of the overall economy.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; economy; fakenews; media; msm; obama; thanksobama; trump; trumpeconomy; trumptransition
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To: SeekAndFind

The charts don’t even match what the author is claiming.

Worse GDP growth since Carter under Zero.

Lowest labor participation since Carter under Zero.

Real median income lower then what Zero inherited.

Even the leading indicators chart show it trending down for the last 2 years under Zero.


21 posted on 12/06/2016 9:57:09 AM PST by MNJohnnie (This revolt is not ending, it is merely beginning.- Pat Caddell)
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To: Maverick68

Um ... no. Obama “didn’t build that”.

It was, as always, built by a multitude of people acting on their own behalf, for their own enrichment, and the only thing government has contributed since the rise of progressivism is ... the brakes.


22 posted on 12/06/2016 9:57:11 AM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Maverick68

Agreed. I’m reeling that Fortune Magazine carried this Bravo Sierra.


23 posted on 12/06/2016 9:57:47 AM PST by OriginalChristian (The end of America, as founded, began when the first Career Politician was elected...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Yea, right. And just what is the workforce participation rate?


24 posted on 12/06/2016 9:57:52 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Conservatives love America for what it is. Liberals hate America for the same reason.)
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To: SeekAndFind

20 trillion debt? ...thats the worst known.


25 posted on 12/06/2016 9:58:00 AM PST by Democrats hate too much
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To: SeekAndFind

The Obama economy was so great that Republicans won in a landslide across the country.


26 posted on 12/06/2016 9:58:39 AM PST by Navin Johnson
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m not subscribing to Fortune magazine in the foreseeable future if this is the crap they’re reporting.

I for one don’t see a fantastic growth in the economy.espechially in my income.

Though being a FReeper from the liberal North East doesn’t help.I just can’t believe Fortune actually believes these lies that the Obams Administration has been putting out for the last eight years.You would think Fortune would know better.


27 posted on 12/06/2016 9:59:54 AM PST by puppypusher ( The World is going to the dogs.)
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To: SeekAndFind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1v14NDguCc


28 posted on 12/06/2016 10:00:13 AM PST by Jim W N
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To: SeekAndFind

When you have an official inflation rate that tends to under report inflation, statistics that have the word `Real` in them should be treated with some skepticism.


29 posted on 12/06/2016 10:00:23 AM PST by mbrfl
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To: Voluntaryist

Please explain the photo for me. I don’t understand the meaning on the hat, but the photo of him is one that would be more likely to be posted on DU.


30 posted on 12/06/2016 10:01:03 AM PST by Carthego delenda est
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To: SeekAndFind

I can’t wait for Elaine Chao’s first monthly stats report - when she fixes all of the cooked numbers that Obama’s Labor Dept. has been spewing.


31 posted on 12/06/2016 10:01:10 AM PST by alancarp (George Orwell was an optimist.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m not subscribing to Fortune magazine in the foreseeable future if this is the crap they’re reporting.

I for one don’t see a fantastic growth in the economy.espechially in my income.

Though being a FReeper from the liberal North East doesn’t help.I just can’t believe Fortune actually believes these lies that the Obams Administration has been putting out for the last eight years.You would think Fortune would know better.


32 posted on 12/06/2016 10:01:33 AM PST by puppypusher ( The World is going to the dogs.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Chris Matthews shouldn’t confuse his drunken reveries with the real world.


33 posted on 12/06/2016 10:01:57 AM PST by Pelham (the refusal to Deport is defacto Amnesty)
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To: SeekAndFind

Chris Matthews is an ignorant slut. Why is Fortune publishing anything from an economic illiterate?


34 posted on 12/06/2016 10:03:06 AM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: SeekAndFind

All I had to read was “Chris Mathews.”


35 posted on 12/06/2016 10:03:19 AM PST by ChessExpert (It's not compassion when you use government to give other people's money away.)
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To: Democrats hate too much

Worse than that is the $4 trillion mostly unconstitutional size of the feds, the most threatening entity to America and Americans. Remember, the greatest threat to any people is their own government. Throughout history, more people have been killed by their own government than any invading force.


36 posted on 12/06/2016 10:03:56 AM PST by Jim W N
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To: SeekAndFind

Holy She-it’s!!! Really???? 95 million people not working and 21 trillion in debt!!!. That is getting a good economy?????


37 posted on 12/06/2016 10:04:33 AM PST by MGunny
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To: MNJohnnie

Charts aside, let’s look at Chris Matthew’s (is it THAT Chris Matthews? I don’t know ) claim in more detail...

Obama like FDR before him, was dealt a very bad hand on the economy. However, he largely followed the Roosevelt prescription of government activism.

Obama imposed more spending, hyper-regulation, and tax increases, while also threatening throughout his two terms to inflict even more tax hikes, regulations and spending.

The results of increased costs and uncertainty on the private sector were predictable, that is, fewer resources and diminished incentives for starting up, expanding and investing in businesses.

This article basically highlighted an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in November, and served up assorted quotes from the Obama crowd which included the typical declaration from Obama circles that his policies saved us from another Great Depression.

But putting aside the spin and just looking at the numbers, it’s unmistakable that Obama is handing over a badly under-performing economy to his successor. Consider economic growth and employment.

Real annual GDP growth since the end of the recession in mid-2009 has grown at less than half the rate it should during periods of recovery and expansion (averaging a mere 2.1 percent during this recovery compared to the historic average of 4.3 percent).

If growth during this recovery had matched the historical average, GDP this year would approximately $2.5 trillion larger.

As for the recent drop in the unemployment rate, from 5.0 percent in September to 4.6 percent in November, it turns out that 78 percent of that reduction was due to people LEAVING the labor force altogether, rather than new jobs being created.

The media never talks about the LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE. If they highlighted this, it would tell us that Labor force participation and job creation have been WOEFUL.

Employment as a share of the population in November registered 59.7 percent. If this employment-population ratio registered a more typical level prevailing before the recession (for example, 63 percent), we’d have 8.3 million MORE people working today.

In the end, the additional costs and uncertainties courtesy of government policies under Obama have discouraged private investment and entrepreneurship (both also down markedly from where they should be), and resulted in less growth and diminished job creation.

Looking back at history, through costly, wrongheaded policymaking, Hoover in effect created a recession, and both he and FDR turned it into the Great Depression. Similarly, President Obama took a bad economy, turned it into a deeper recession, and generated one of the worst recoveries on record.

Given his dismal performance in office, in order to polish up his legacy, Obama will have to rely on his own delusional declarations, the work of his political spin-meisters, and the complicity or ignorance of some in the media. Let’s hope that historians look at the actual record.


38 posted on 12/06/2016 10:05:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

wow just wow


39 posted on 12/06/2016 10:05:35 AM PST by thorvaldr
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To: SeekAndFind

Im so old I remember when Fortune magazine wasn’t socialist.


40 posted on 12/06/2016 10:06:44 AM PST by DesertRhino (November 8, America's Brexit!!!)
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