Tag: Trump economy

Stock market slide muddles Trump’s economic message days before 2020 election

Washington Post logo

Wednesday’s sell-off follows Monday’s sharp decline as the president tries to make a closing argument with voters.

A sudden drop in the stock market in recent days threatens to muddle President Trump’s campaign message about the U.S. economic recovery, just days before the Nov. 3 election.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 943 points Wednesday and is down nearly 9 percent since Sept. 2.

The sell-off began two weeks ago but intensified Monday. It has been triggered by a surge in coronavirus cases and the fact that the White House and Democrats are at an impasse over relief talks. Continue reading.

‘The scariest jobs chart’: Economics columnist details the troubling signs lurking beneath the positive unemployment news

AlterNet logoWhen President Donald Trump spoke at a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Friday, he bragged to reporters about the state of the economy.

“We’re going to have the strongest economy in the world,” he said. “We’re almost there now.”

But while there was unexpectedly good news released on Friday, columnist Catherine Rampell explained in her Washington Post column why it also came with troubling signs.  Continue reading.

CNN anchor corners Trump trade advisor as he rattles off several lies about the economy

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s Trade Advisor Peter Navarro had to take one for the team after delivering an especially partisan attack on the Obama economy because CNN anchor Poppy Harlow wasn’t having it.

Navarro repeatedly claimed the economy under President Barack Obama was “horrible,” even after Harlow posted numbers and charts that proved growth under the 44th president was far stronger than growth under Trump.

“It’s a great economy now. All I’m asking you is, wasn’t it a good economy then as well?” Harlow asked Navarro. Continue reading.

These 3 charts show how Trump’s ‘blue collar boom’ is more of a bust for US workers

AlterNet logoIf you thought workers’ hourly pay was finally rising, think again.

At first glance, the latest data – which came out on Feb. 7 – look pretty good. They show nominal hourly earnings rose 3.1% in January from a year earlier.

But the operative word here is nominal, which means not adjusted for changes in the cost of living. Once you factor in inflation, the picture changes drastically. And far from representing a “blue collar boom” – as the president put it in his State of the Union address – the real, inflation-adjusted data show most U.S. workers have not benefited from the growing economy. Continue reading.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Trump’s economy is an absolute disaster for people and the planet

AlterNet logoIt is becoming conventional wisdom that US President Donald Trump will be tough to beat in November, because, whatever reservations about him voters may have, he has been good for the American economy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Neither GDP nor the Dow is a good measure of economic performance. Neither tells us what’s happening to ordinary citizens’ living standards or anything about sustainability.

As the world’s business elites trek to Davos for their annual gathering, people should be asking a simple question: Have they overcome their infatuation with US President Donald Trump? Continue reading.

There Are Economic Warning Signs for Trump in the Midwest

New York Times logoThe American economy has found its footing after a summer recession scare. But much of the Midwest is still stumbling.

President Trump campaigned in 2016 on a pledge to restore jobs — manufacturing jobs, specifically — to long-struggling Midwestern communities, and he has made the economy a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.

But job growth has slowed sharply this year in Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states that were critical to Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016, as well as in states like Minnesota that he narrowly lost. Hiring in the region has remained sluggish even as it has picked up this fall in much of the rest of the country. Other economic measures show similar weakness.

Continue reading

Financial Times columnist expertly dissects Trump’s ‘best economy ever boast’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump regularly boasts that the United States is experiencing the “best economy ever” — but a new opinion poll conducted by the Financial Times shows that most voters clearly don’t feel that way.

Even though the United States has a low unemployment rate and a record stock market, the poll shows most Americans don’t feel they’re getting ahead thanks to sluggish wage growth.

“Persistently slow wage growth appeared to be a main driver of discontent, with 36 percent of those who said they were worse off blaming their income levels,” the Financial Times reports. “Another 19 per cent pointed to personal or family debts as the reason they felt worse off.”

View the complete November 4 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Often-talkative Trump goes quiet amid impeachment testimony, slowing economy

‘It’s almost like he is low energy these days,’ Democratic strategist says

ANALYSIS | All week, reporters at the White House have waited for the announcement over the loudspeaker instructing the day’s press pool to report for duty pronto for unplanned presidential remarks. But, so far, the speaker has remained mostly silent — just like President Donald Trump.

Even during a term that has featured — at the time, at least — what felt like consequential weeks, this one quickly took on a different feel.

Other than brief remarks over the loud engines of Air Force One on Monday morning, a president who has effectively counterprogrammed negative media coverage, questionable policy moves, bitter West Wing staff departures and even the opening weeks of an impeachment has retreated from reporters’ questions.

View the complete October 31 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

As a Kentucky mill shutters, steelworkers see the limits of Trump’s intervention

Washington Post logoAlthough tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports provided a temporary boost, the industry is seeing another decline

ASHLAND, KENTUCKY — Brenda Deborde cried throughout her 16-hour shift at the steel plant here when she received official notice this August that her job was being cut.

Deborde had hoped President Trump’s tariffs could revive this once-mighty mill on a bank of the Ohio River, which for much of the 20th century formed the center of economic life in this part of Eastern Kentucky.

She and her husband, Matt, had traveled to welcome the president as he went to a rally in nearby Huntington, W.Va., waving their Trump flag and “Make America Great Again” hat to the motorcade from the side of the road.

View the complete October 25 article by Jeff Stein on The Washington Post website here.

No, the economy isn’t working well for all Americans — and a new survey proves it

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has not hesitated to boast about the state of the U.S. economy, insisting that his policies have brought about an economic miracle (never mind the fact that unemployment was going way down during President Barack Obama’s second term). But two of the Democratic presidential primary candidates who are hoping to unseat Trump in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, have repeatedly stressed that big chunks of the U.S. population are not feeling the economic recovery — and a new survey by the personal finance website WalletHub bears that out.

The United States’ national unemployment rate, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures, was 3.7% in August and 3.5% in September. When Obama was a lame duck in December 2016, it was 4.7% compared to 10% in October 2009 during the worst of the Great Recession. So Trump inherited an economy that was in recovery under Obama; he didn’t create an economic miracle single-handedly, contrary to what one often hears on Fox News. Further, unemployment figures don’t tell the whole story, and WalletHub’s survey underscores the fact that millions of Americans are still struggling.

According to WalletHub’s survey, released this week, “78 million Americans” say their finances are a “horror show” — that includes 34% of Millennials and 16% of Baby Boomers. Moreover, 85% of Americans, WalletHub reports, plan on spending less this Halloween compared to Halloween 2018.

View the complete October 25 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.