This Is Why WTF Won't Bet Against the Trump Economy

Please refrain from commenting unless you are literate in economics and have something intelligent to add.


It Takes Chutzpah to Call This the ‘Obama Boom’

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are moving from part-time work to full-time employment.

By Andy Puzder
Feb. 6, 2018 7:30 p.m. ET
564 COMMENTS

Progressives are tying themselves in knots to avoid giving President Trump credit for anything positive. Take the economy. It isn’t really booming, they say, but even if it is, President Obama is the man to thank.

The claim doesn’t add up. In 2010 the Obama White House forecast gross domestic product growth would “accelerate in 2011 to 3.8%” and “exceed 4% per year in 2012-2014,” consistent with the 4.3% growth rate in the other 10 recoveries since World War II. That never happened. Actual post-recession growth averaged an anemic 2.1%. And Mr. Obama’s last year in office saw measly 1.5% GDP growth - hardly the springboard to our current expansion.

Former Obama administration economists have circled the wagons in an attempt to explain away their boss’s dismal economic record as a product of structural factors rather than policy. Austan Goolsbee has called Mr. Trump’s growth goals unrealistic. In May Larry Summers declared that accepting the Trump administration’s forecast of 3% GDP growth was like believing “in tooth fairies.”

These claims have made it difficult for progressives to explain the 3% average GDP growth rate during Mr. Trump’s first three full quarters in office. They’ve resorted instead to diminishing the president’s economic record by pointing to 2017’s full-year GDP growth of 2.3% - relatively close to Mr. Obama’s 2.1% post-recession average.

The problem for Mr. Obama’s progressive defenders is that analysts traditionally attribute the first quarter of a new presidency to the previous administration. President Bush, rather than Mr. Obama, got the blame for the negative 5.4% growth during the first quarter of 2009. What was fair then is fair now. The attempt to saddle Mr. Trump with responsibility for the economy’s performance during the first quarter of 2017 is disingenuous.

A bigger problem for progressives is that Mr. Trump’s numbers easily could have been much better. Two hurricanes held GDP growth down in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, businesses were waiting to see if Congress would pass tax reform setting lower tax rates and enabling them immediately to write off 100% of their investments in plant and equipment. I was a CEO for 17 years; I would have waited too. This hampered fourth-quarter growth but should accelerate growth in the first quarter of 2018. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is forecasting first-quarter growth of 4%.

The jobs numbers are similarly positive. In 2017 the economy added approximately 2.1 million jobs. Progressives counter that job growth actually slowed from the 2.2 million jobs added in 2016. But job quality also matters. The Obama economy was a “part time” economy that failed to generate the full-time jobs Americans need.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people working full time increased by 2.4 million in 2017, compared with only 1.6 million in 2016. In other words, the overall number of jobs added was lower in 2017, but only because hundreds of thousands of people left part-time for full-time jobs.

Both 2016 and 2017 set some year-end records. In 2016, BLS recorded the highest number of people working part time at year’s end since it began recording the data in 1968. In 2017, it recorded the highest number of people working full time at year’s end since 1968 and the fewest working part-time since 2011.

Regulatory relief and tax reform are bringing more growth and better jobs. It’s a Trump Boom, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the president should “thank Obama.” Perhaps, but only for setting economic bar so low.

Mr. Puzder is a former CEO of CKE Restaurants.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/it-take...oom-1517963452

He’ll find something stupid to say.

No doubt... but he won't take your bet because he is ALL HAT, NO CATTLE!

He’ll find something stupid to say. Originally Posted by bambino

his come back will be that ronald reagan increased the deficit

He’ll find something stupid to say. Originally Posted by bambino

Your silly roommate from Pittsburgh if doing a fucking paste and copy post after crying for weeks, months and years for me to not do so!

So your post is the second most stupid post in this thread with his dumbass oost lapping the field!

Your silly roommate from Pittsburgh if doing a fucking paste and copy post after crying for weeks, months and years for me to not do so!

So your post is the second most stupid post in this thread with his dumbass oost lapping the field! Originally Posted by WTF

Nah, when people read your disjointed, idiotic post, they’ll know you’re really stupid.

Your silly roommate from Pittsburgh if doing a fucking paste and copy post after crying for weeks, months and years for me to not do so!

So your post is the second most stupid post in this thread with his dumbass oost lapping the field! Originally Posted by WTF

Your right WTF all lustyface knows how to do is copy and paste propaganda from right wing hackers. I could come up with multiple articles that would say why Obama’s economy was so great compared to this trump disaster. I prefer to think on my own like I’m sure you do. Anything Lusty or his gay lover Dumbino posts has zero credibility.

Your right WTF all lustyface knows how to do is copy and paste propaganda from right wing hackers. I could come up with multiple articles that would say why Obama’s economy was so great compared to this trump disaster. I prefer to think on my own like I’m sure you do. Anything Lusty or his gay lover Dumbino posts has zero credibility. Originally Posted by StandinStraight

Says the poster with the LEAST credibility in this forum. And THAT'S doing something with the rest of the reach-around crew posters doing their damnedest to be the top idiot poster in this forum ! Add all of THAT to your sig line and you might FINALLY have some truthful in it.

Your right WTF all lustyface knows how to do is copy and paste propaganda from right wing hackers. I could come up with multiple articles that would say why Obama’s economy was so great compared to this trump disaster. I prefer to think on my own like I’m sure you do. Anything Lusty or his gay lover Dumbino posts has zero credibility. Originally Posted by StandinStraight

You and WTF deserve each other.

Says the poster with the LEAST credibility in this forum. And THAT'S doing something with the rest of the reach-around crew posters doing their damnedest to be the top idiot poster in this forum ! Add all of THAT to your sig line and you might FINALLY have some truthful in it. Originally Posted by Rey Lengua

Lol. Homophobic Rey!

I love you Rey!

Your (sic) right WTF all lustyface knows how to do is copy and paste propaganda from right wing hackers. I could come up with multiple articles that would say why Obama’s economy was so great compared to this trump disaster. I prefer to think on my own like I’m sure you do. Anything Lusty or his gay lover Dumbino posts has zero credibility. Originally Posted by StandinStraight

Pay attention, twaddletwat. Here is a repeat of the instructions in my OP:

Please refrain from commenting unless you are literate in economics and have something intelligent to add. Originally Posted by lustylad

The article contains empirical data on actual (and forecast) GDP, as well as part-time and full-time employment numbers. Feel free to "think on your own" if you believe you are economically literate and have anything intelligent to say (cough, cough), but the data are the data.

Says the poster with the LEAST credibility in this forum. And THAT'S doing something with the rest of the reach-around crew posters doing their damnedest to be the top idiot poster in this forum ! Add all of THAT to your sig line and you might FINALLY have some truthful in it. Originally Posted by Rey Lengua

Hey Rey, I am a straight shooter, everything I post is fact checked or my opinion, you not agreeing with my opinion or facts has nothing to do with my credibility, it has more to do with you being a ass.

Learn the meaning of credibility !

Your silly roommate from Pittsburgh if doing a fucking paste and copy post after crying for weeks, months and years for me to not do so! Originally Posted by WTF

The article is straightforward and speaks for itself. However, if there is anything in it you don't understand, let me know and I will be happy to clarify it for you. (Something you decline to do for any of your copy-paste links, since they are way over your head and are posted here purely to convey the false impression that you are conversant and literate on economic matters.)

Learn the meaning of credibility ! Originally Posted by StandinStraight

Shall we take a poll to determine exactly how much credibility you have in this forum, Professor Fellatio?

Your right WTF .... Originally Posted by StandinStraight

.. "even when he's wrong"!

WTF is worried about the "economic impact" of ....

.... reduced, low wage labor for his house building!!!!