Free Republic

Barack Obama is on the road attempting to claim credit for the booming economy under President Trump. But the only thing Obama deserves credit for is making it easy for Trump to undo Obama's anti-growth policies. For eight years, President Obama presided over the worst economic recovery in modern times. For six years, he blamed Republicans in Congress for thwarting his spending agenda and hampering growth. In his last two years in office, he claimed that 2% growth was the best we could hope for. And in his last year in office, while the economy was again stalling out, Obama...

Media outlets this week are all over a new Pew study that finds, the headlines promise, that President Trump's support is not quite as broad and not quite as happy as his stunningly stable approval rating might suggest. But what's striking from the numbers, at least as far as I can see, is not how much support Trump has lost but how, given the daily barrage of tweets and countertweets; ugly chants and ugly corruption trials (his campaign chairman); intense criticism in the media; all-out war in Congress; and foreign policy flubs and domestic failures, much remains firm, and how...

(Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV FCH.MI (FCAU.N) said on Thursday it would invest more than $1 billion in its Michigan plant and add 2,500 jobs as it benefits from the overhaul of the U.S. tax code. The company said it would spend the money to modernize the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michigan to produce its Ram Heavy Duty trucks. The company will relocate the truck’s production from its current location in Saltillo, Mexico, to the Michigan plant in 202O. The car maker also said it would make a special bonus payment of $2,000 to about 60,000 FCA hourly...

On the heels of companies dishing bonuses of up to $3,000 to over one million workers due to the anticipated benefit of President Trump’s tax reform victory, several major utilities have announced plans to cut rates in a consumer payback related to the lower taxes. Energy suppliers like Washington’s Pepco, Baltimore Gas and Light, Pacific Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Commonwealth Edison said they plan to give hundreds of thousands of customers a rate cut due to the tax reform.

I did breakfast early this morning at McDonalds near a large ATLANTA institution construction site with hundreds of workers on a cold Saturday morning. McDonalds was crowded with them. The women behind the counter were obviously family of some of the construction workers, all macho. All construction workers were Hispanic. Almost all were Mexican. Many were obviously recent immigrants. A significant number were teenagers. Some appeared to be as young as 14. The teenagers might qualify as Dreamers. (I have experience since 1962 developing this skill of recognizing them. Were these young teenagers here on Saturday morning on a take...

What is it that ends a recession, and finally brings about an economic boom? After a long and painful “non-recovery recovery” – a decade-long stretch in which job growth and the labor force non-participation rate remained flat – the federal government has finally accomplished, in 2017, the primary contributions that it can make to bring about a real recovery: By year-end, Congress had passed, and the president had signed, a long-overdue tax cut, reducing the tax rate that employers pay by nearly a half. It wasn’t enough, and we will need to add additional cuts in a phase two and...

In 1980, Ronald Reagan campaigned on a four point economic recovery plan. First, reduce tax rates, to increase incentives for job creation, investment, business start-ups and expansion, and wage growth due to the resulting increased demand for labor and increased productivity. Even liberal Keynesian economics holds that tax cuts are pro-growth. Two, reduce regulatory costs and barriers to business, which can act as further tax cuts. Three, reduce federal spending, to reduce the government’s drain on the private sector. And four, restrain monetary policy to restore a stable value for the dollar. After Reagan led adoption of those policies in...

What nation is this? 7,100,000 cell phone subscribers - up from 1,400,000 only two years ago. This nation's leading cell phone company took in $333,000,000 in 2005, and is on track to take in $520,000,000 in 2006. 34,000 registered companies in the chamber of commerce - up from 8,000 two years ago. GDP growth in 2005 was 17%, in 2006 13%. (We get jazzed when our GDP is 3-4%.)

President Bush’s tax cuts—and especially the well-designed supply-side tax cuts of 2003—have helped the economy. In particular, the substantial reduction in the tax rate on dividends and the modest reduction in the tax rate on capital gains have helped investment. A decline in investment had led the recession at the start of Bush’s term, and increased investment has led the current boom. For a boom is what it is. The economy is growing, jobs are increasing, wages are up, and the stock market is rising. The tax cuts are not responsible for all of this good news, but both common...

LIKE SOME OTHER states, Maryland is enjoying the fruits of an economic boom whose bounty has intoxicated state officials and blurred their vision. A windfall owing much to the rising housing market has flooded the state's treasury with the sort of easy money that seems as if it might last forever. Politicians of both parties, in an election year, are happily spending the excess cash and cutting taxes besides. But it doesn't take clairvoyance to see that the state is digging itself a big hole; within three or four years, spending is projected to outstrip revenue by more than $1...

Despite a great deal of pessimism, the US economy is booming. Real GDP grew by 4.8% in the first quarter, while "core" real GDP (consumer spending plus fixed investment) expanded at a 6.4% annualized rate. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, durable goods new orders surged 2.8% in March and are up 9.6% in the past year. Sales of both new and existing homes exceeded expectations in March, while commercial and industrial loans have expanded at a 14.5% annual rate during the first three months of 2006. For April, Wal-Mart blew away expectations and reported 6.8% same-store sales increases.The reasons for...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Visitors to the nation's capital surpassed pre-Nine-Eleven levels last year -- and are expected to do the same this year. The Washington, DC, Convention and Tourism Corporation reports more than 18 million people visited the city in 2004. That's a nine percent increase over 2003. The corporation says 2005 shows signs of reaching tourism levels not seen since 1998. The group's president, Bill Hanbury, credits the increase to new attractions like the World War Two Memorial, National Museum of the American Indian and the Washington Convention Center.

State-by-State Jobs Data June 18 the government released May jobs figures for states across the country - and the news is good. According to statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), job creation was up in 44 of the 50 states in the last year, and the unemployment rate was down in all regions and in 46 of the 50 states. Nationwide, the economy has posted steady job gains for each of the last nine months - creating more than 1.4 million new jobs since August. The national unemployment rate stood at 5.6% in May - down 0.7...

PowerPoint SlidesMemo & Slides (PDF) President George W. Bush has provided steady leadership in the face of remarkable change. The President’s positive and ambitious agenda has made our nation safer, stronger and better. The past three and a half years have tested our nation. The American people have responded with strength, optimism and resolve to grow the economy, strengthen our communities, and protect our nation from the threat of global terror. America’s economy is strong and growing stronger. We have overcome the triple shock of terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, and recession. We have overcome the challenges of being a...

7 reasons the job market is about to take off Here's hope for those who've lost jobs or worry they will. A better economy is unfolding right now, and the Great American Jobs Machine is about to kick into high gear. By Charles Lieberman Unemployed? Worried about your job security? Scared by the negative stuff you read in the papers and hear on television? Most of these concerns reflect the recent past. But I'm here to tell you there's strong reason to believe the Great American Jobs Machine is about to crank up yet again. In fact, there are seven...

For weeks the media inside the Beltway have been chattering relentlessly about the sinking dollar and the threat of deflation. Their sky-is-falling mantra features the liberal message that President Bush's proposed tax-cut plan will fuel the budget deficit, jack up interest rates, and wreck the economy. And yet, if the Bush economic-recovery plan of easier money and lower tax rates is so catastrophic — about to rip through the economy like an Oklahoma tornado — why are both the stock and bond markets enjoying significant rallies? Somebody has to be wrong here. No doubt, there's a big disconnect between Wall...

A study of census data concludes that recent immigrants were critical to the nation's economic growth in the past decade, accounting for half the new wage-earners who joined the labor force in those years. The effect was particularly large among men: Eight of 10 new male workers in the previous decade were immigrants who arrived during that time, according to the report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. The Northeastern University report, scheduled for release this week, offers powerful evidence of the growing impact of immigrants in American society. Earlier data from the 2000 Census showed...