U.S. economic growth slowed in 2017’s fourth quarter, missing Trump’s targets

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...22769454f82_story.html?utm_term=.f2668893f7dc

Ouch, out of the window goes the lofty goal of a 3% annual GDP for Trump's first year. What happened, I thought we were supposed to see over 4% this quarter and we only end up with a measly 2.6%?

 

So his worst is Obama's average?

Devil in the details which you did not post

"WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. expanded at a 2.6% annual pace in fourth quarter, extending one of the best stretches of growth during the current eight-and-a-half-year-old upturn. GDP fell short of MarketWatch's 3% forecast, however, owing to lower inventory production and a bigger trade deficit. Consumer spending, the main engine of the economy, rose a strong 3.8%, the biggest increase in almost two years. Investment in new housing increased 11.6%, business spending on equipment surged 11.4% and outlays on structures edged up 1.4%, according to Commerce Department data. Yet the value of inventories declined by $29.3 billion. Trade was an even bigger drag on GDP. Imports jumped 13.9%, doubling the 6.9% rise in exports. Inflation as measured by the PCE price index increased at a 2.8% annual rate, the highest pace since 2011. Core PCE rose at a slower 1.9% clip, however."
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u...rter-gdp-shows-2018-01-26?mg=prod/accounts-mw

We got tax reform and now working on trade.

 

neither of which had any effect in 2017

 

Er... it's his first year, I think it's a bit premature to call this year his worst.

I didn't post something from a completely separate news story? Ok...

I'll wait, but so far all of your guys' predictions have been pretty off basis.

 

Had the low-energy commie won we'd still be limping along under 2%, no employees would have received $1000 bonuses, and no businesses would have pledged to repatriate billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

 

Well DUH so far……

You posted from behind a paywall site.

Well hes not my guy and qhat first year predictions have been off base. Curious what the revised number will be.

 

Well go be fair this years economy has been claimed by the left as Obama’s so thanks Obama.

 

3%? During the campaign donald was saying 4%, maybe 5 or 6%.

 

The Tax Bill depends on higher GDP growth to pay for itself.

Guess that was just a load of **** as usual by the GOP.

And "working on trade"? Seems like Donnie's working on trade wars and protectionism. We've tried that before and it ended horribly.

 

lol, trying to derail this thread too?

 

Still Obama's economy according to the left. The tax bill didn't start in 2017.

 

LOL

 

Y'all are the ones that have been claiming the booming economy is Obama's and now someone claims the tax cuts that do into effect in 2018 is supposed to retroactively work in 2017.

I know, I am using the libs own words to sink them and that is a no-no.

 

Sure, and no conservatives have given complete credit to donald for the previous two quarters.

 

Hey, I am just using lefty logic.

 

If the shoe fits

 

"GDP fell short of MarketWatch's 3% forecast" you got the wrong guy.

 

So...for 2017...the GDP rose by 2.53%. And that is despite the highest credit card debt EVER and personal savings rates so low they are at Great Recession numbers.

Big deal.

And if the Fed keeps raising interest rates, that will only get worse.

Sure, lowering corporate taxes will help a bit...but Trump is utterly clueless about trade if he thinks tariffs are the answer (almost all of Wall Street agrees).

I said early in 2017 that no way Trump will top 3% growth for his Presidency...and I guarantee you he won't.
Let alone the 4-5% nonsense he was spouting during the election.


The economy is a fundamental MESS. It was under Obama and it still is under Trump.

It is almost completely being propped up by low interest rates. When they are gone...so goes even 2.53% growth.
Again...guaranteed.

 

Don't bet against another short-term consumer debt binge. It seems that many consumers drunk the GOP koolaid of prosperity for all through tax cuts and they are ready to spend money they don't have.

Once they realize down the road they didn't have the money to spend, the next recession will follow and will be terrible again. This is all an exact repeat of what happened in 2003-2008.

 

Technically, the Treasury Dept goes by fiscal years to determine what President gets credit. FY 2017 is in the Obama scoreboard. Trump’s first will be FY 2018.

Interesting thing, that would mean credit for the unemployment rate will also fall to Obama.

 

And Paul Krugman and CBO said 3% was no longer attainable.

 

As they have in the past.

 

No just trying to get an answer about your assertion.

So..............? Is the answer back in that thread yet?

 

Utter nonsense.

Paul Krugman is a spend happy economist. He has (possibly) never seen a deficit he did not like. Since when does a Trumpbot care what the poster boy for Keynesianism thinks?

And where is your link that proves that the CBO said that 3% growth in impossible?

 

A good bit of it the rest goes to the Republican congress and businesses. You certainly aren't going to attribute Obama simply because he was President in 2016 are you? Else you'll have to go back and retract your statements that Obama pulled us out of the recession in 2009 and saved us from a depression and give that credit to Bush.