They quit teaching economics in school for a reason
U.S. economic growth in 2018 missed the Trump administration’s 3% target by any measure, which could renew criticism of the White House’s $1.5 trillion in tax cuts.
The Commerce Department said on Friday that gross domestic product increased at a 2.9% rate last year, confirming an estimate which was published in March. The department’s annual revisions to GDP data also showed the economy growing 2.5% in the 12 months through the fourth quarter of 2018, down from the previously reported 3.0%…An alternative measure of economic growth, gross domestic income (GDI), rose 2.5% in 2018. The average of GDP and GDI, also referred to as gross domestic output and considered a better measure of economic activity, increased 2.7% in 2018.
Revised down? Sure, whatever, the bureaucrats got their >3.0% growth AND managed to trot out a useless, make-believe indicator that isn’t used anywhere by any serious economist. GDI???? Really? They might as well have trotted out PPP (purchase power parity) another useless statistical, and once popular, measurement that proves that your dollar goes farther in Somalia than in Norway.
The trend over the past year is to bring out obscure indicators to prove that we are going into a recession and that
Obama’s indicators were always revised downward, every time, quietly, as if no one would notice. This revision is TOP FOLD! Blaring headlines for 0.1% drop. 0.1%??? This is embarrassing for the economic profession.
And, honestly, there hasn’t been such an exhaustive review of tortured indicators since the Voodoo priests started using chicken bones to predict the future. OMG!!! THE YIELD CURVE IS INVERTED!!!! ORANGE MAN BAD!!! DOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!
Let’s get some perspective….’The downward revisions to the three quarters largely reflected downgrades to business investment, suggesting corporations likely did not plow their tax windfall back into their businesses. Some companies like Apple used their windfall for share buybacks.’
Here is what matters:
CEO of US steelmaker Nucor: We’re ‘very pleased’ with the results of Trump’s tariffs…
U. S. Steel plans to invest more than $1 billion in the place where our reputation as a steel industry leader was forged: our Mon Valley Works…
New state-of-the-art endless casting and rolling facility at Edgar Thomson Plant; first-of-its-kind facility in the U.S….CEO of rail operator Union Pacific sees ‘plenty of opportunity for economic growth…
US factory orders for large manufactured goods surged 2% in June (driven by airplanes and car demand).
The U.S. produced, consumed and exported record amounts of energy in 2018, the Energy Information Administration reported (May 2019).
It’s simple, manufacture things and move them to market. Expect more statistical masturbation as the US moves from the fraudulent Wall Street economy back to the Traditional Main Street Economy where we make things out of raw materials.
