Sunday, February 11, 2018

It’d be great if Trump were right about the economy, but he’s not

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/itd-be-great-if-trump-were-right-about-the-economy-hes-not
"Neither of these claims is accurate. Economic growth in 2017 – Trump’s first year in office – wasn’t bad at 2.3%, but GDP growth was better in 2010, 2014, and 2015. What’s more, while the president apparently hopes everyone has forgotten his campaign vows, GDP growth wasn’t just slower than it was across much of Barack Obama’s second term, it’s also short of Trump’s misguided promises. As for job numbers, while I enjoyed the “since my election” feint – Trump wants credit for the jobs created in the months before he took office – the simple reality is that job growth fell to a six-year low in 2017. To date, the White House hasn’t even tried to explain this development. At Davos, the president also pointed to the stock market and stock prices six times, failing to note that Wall Street growth was actually more robust under Obama. In the same speech, Trump added, “The world’s largest company, Apple, announced plans to bring $245 billion in overseas profits home to America. Their total investment into the United States economy will be more than $350 billion over the next five years.” No, actually, it won’t. As Vox explained, “What Apple actually promised was to make $30 billion in domestic capital investments, most of which will be data centers, offices, and Apple Store real estate upgrades rather than actual manufacturing facilities. The $350 billion measure is a rough five-year estimate of Apple’s total ‘contribution’ to the American economy. If you’re playing Infinite Golf on your iPhone and make an in-app purchase, that contributes to GDP. Since the contribution is routed through Apple, your spending becomes part of the Apple contribution to the American economy. It’s a semi-fake measure that’s basically a long-winded way of saying that Apple is a very big company"."