Donald Trump Is Inheriting the Best Economy in a Generation Thanks to Obama

Fortune ^ | 12/06/2016 | Chris Matthews

[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.

[Organic Panic]

Never mentioned is the butchers bill on Obamadebt.

[No Dems 2016]

The economy could be worse but it also could be MUCH better. Labor participation is very low and the economy is lukewarm, at best. It should be booming its socks off but Obama’s regulations and silly policies are keeping it from doing just that. Also, our infrastructure needs a major upgrade! Obama is a failed president.

[BluH2o]

January 2009 when Obama took office the national debt was at approx. $9.5 trillion.
Eight years later, as he leaves office, it is fast approaching $20 trillion.
That's $10 trillion in eight years, the largest increase in debt by Obama than all of his 43 presidential predecessors combined.

[WashingtonSource]

This one looks goofier than the one on MSNBC.

[stylin19a]

his twitter picture looks even different.

https://twitter.com/crobmatthews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

[WashingtonSource]

He looks like a college drop-out tripping out on some designer drug.

[nclaurel]

Someone who graduated even 5 years ago with lots of tuition debt and who has never gotten a job in their field is in deep doo doo when they try to compete with a new grad. Trump will create jobs but there will a large block of people who will still suffer because of the muslim’s economy for years to come.

[tx_eggman]

Within 3 weeks of the inaugration Matthews will be writing stories lamenting the plight of homeless all over America

[beethovenfan]

But evidently the same BS

[clearcarbon]

I recall that comrade obama was seriously concerned that if he lost the 2012 election and the economy improved, his Republican successor would be credited for the successful results of obamanomics policy. It turned out that was not a problem.

[Feckless]

To paraphrase the great comedian/philosopher Richard Pryor:

Uyghur, PLEASE!

[gspurlock]

Thanks for the additional insight. I have been watching “macro” influences for quite a while. During my entire adult life, every time we have a new administration, business slows down for 3-6 months. Business hates change. They just finish re-tooling for the current administration and get it under control, then everything changes. They stop, hold their breath and then resume business activity when they understand the new environment.

This is the first time I’ve seen business and prosperity increase at the mere promise of a new administration. It’s going to be a wild ride and a very promising one!

[DHerion]

We actually had more debt at the end of WW2 than we have today...it was around 120% of GDP. But we do have an economy with one hand tied behind it’s back with our insane tax code, epa regs, etc. Hold the line on spending, break the medical monopolies, cut regs, swap out the payroll tax for an import tax and we could turn this around pretty fast.

[pingman]

We also were the only industrialized nation in the world that wasn’t bombed to smithereens, and were able to switch back to manufacturing consumer goods in short order. That, and the Bretton Woods agreement launched the post-war recovery period, or as I fondly recall it: my childhood years.