1. 48% of Americans see their economic situation getting worse (up from 36% only few months ago) https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...rumps-“economic-miracle”-heres-why/ar-BBUgH0S 2. Trade Deficits hit 10 year high https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.20c538850bbb 3. U.S. Budget Deficit Widens 77 Percent https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...venue-declines
Actually, the trade deficit was $891.2 billion, which is the largest ever in US history. The trade gap with China also hit a record $419 billion. It seems common sense that a trade war, which makes US goods more expensive abroad, would result in less trade, but I guess it was not common sense to Trump.
And debt at every level grows larger every day.Corporate tax receipts for 2018 fell 31% the largest decline on record.
That too.... Government spending was increased by 9%, so its the old "cut revenues and increase spending" formula.
I find it amusing that in the first post you complain about the trade deficit and in the next post you complain about us reducing the trade with China. You can’t have fair trade with a country that rigs it’s currency.
Read again. The deficit with China increased because they are buying less US goods. If it was the other way round (more US good to China, less Chinese goods to US), it would be a good thing, but now things are worse than before Trump meddled with the markets.
About 1. - I remember seeing headlines about why unemployment is low and wages don’t grow fast enough during the years of Bush and Obama. Who defines the best wage growth rate? When you have low unemployment, you tap into unemployed pool first and only then you raise wages to retain employees. Also, people are retiring and joining workforce every day - for each experienced high paid retiree you will have at least one inexperienced entry-level employees. This fact alone puts a negative pressure on wages. When we needed to hire workers for cheap guess what we did - we hired people straight out of college. About 2 - I’m not sure trade deficit is that big of a deal. It puts a lot of our currency outside of this country, which puts a downward pressure on exchange rates, which benefits exports. About 3 - budget deficit is the only real problem that I see here, but not a single party wants to really do something about it. I guess we are going to have to wait till things get dire for politicians to get their thumbs out of their behinds. And even then we’ll probably see mild austerity at worst.
So much "winning." This is why we really need to get beyond the destructive left-right Cold Civil War, dump Trump and get down to solving some major, fundamental issues that affect us all. For those who don't support the approaches that Democratic politicans and candidates are talking about, find something else that works. Be constructive. Don't labor under the delusion that Republican policies are working, because clearly they are not, and pointing to carefully selected data points like the unemployment rate to bolster those policies is helping no one and getting us nowhere. Our economy is seriously out of whack and "easy" trade wars are not the solution. The problem is internal and far-reaching, a problem of price inequality stemming from the long list of existing government subsidies on the one hand, and under-regulated or unregulated speculation and lending schemes on the other. The end result is that food is dirt cheap while health care, housing and higher education are often out of financial reach for a majority of Americans and bury a great many of us under hopeless levels of debt, all to the benefit of the stock market and a wealthy few. Giving the wealthy more tax breaks and less regulation will not help this situation! It is madness to think otherwise.
Trade deficits aren't actual monetary deficits though, and most economists don't treat them as a major economic indicator. For the most part, unilateral trade deficits don't matter. BTW, this isn't me praising Trump or attempting to defend him. His tariffs are stupid and unconstitutional, and his trade war reflects a lack fo knowledge of even basic economic understanding. And of course the budget deficit is a different animal.
If they are not a major economic indicator, then one must wonder why Trump launched such extreme measures (trade war) to "fix" them. Major indicator or not, the situation was made worse in regards to trade deficits.
Because he's an idiot who thinks trade is a zero sum game and that trade deficits are a monetary loss, that exports are categorically positive while imports are a negative. They only matter in that some job sectors are hurt, but overall US jobs are increased by trade, even at a so-called "deficit." Hong Kong got rich running at a trade deficit. We all have trade deficits in our daily lives and no one bats an eye, for good reason.
Haven't you heard our so called president recently trying to now intervene in the dollars value, trying to talk it down.
What are the positives, say unemployment? Do you have a list of those as well? Just to have an economic reality check, it needs balance or it's not reality.
Unemployment is down 0.6% over two years, so no significant change in that arena. Labor force participation rate has changed 0.1%, so not much to report there either. Stock market is below January 2018 levels, so it has been in a standstill for over a year. Spending has increased 9%, which is certainly not good news. California is getting much needed rain, which is good news. GDP growth failed to break 3% in 2018. Not much to report. Housing market is slowing, but not collapsing. Not much to report. Inflation is unchanged. Senate is increasing H1B visa quota, which will make some people happy, and some angry. I listed those three issues in the OP, because they are changing (getting worse) rapidly.
Ok, I can see the agenda here so I'll help you out. The American economy is expected to be healthy over 2019 and beyond. https://www.thebalance.com/us-economic-outlook-3305669 Why certain Americans want their economy to dive is Weird.
Yes, that would be weird, I don't know anyone who wants it thought. Discussing the realities about the economy does not mean people want the economy to tank. Your article says GDP growth will slow and inflation will increase. That, and the three things I mentioned are the reality, and anyone who wants to hide from it, is only deceiving him/herself. From your link: 2019 will experience subdued economic growth And: The effects of President Trump's tax cuts have led to increased stock buybacks, not the jobs he promised. Also, companies are concerned about uncertainty resulting from the trade war. As a result, the yield curve in Treasury notescreated an inversion for about a week in December. It signaled that investors believed another recession is probably two to three years out.
I know some Dems, but none that want the economy to collapse. The only person I have heard say it is Bill Maher, who is a libertarian.
According to the US Treasury China does not manipulate its currency. They know a heck of a lot more about it than Trump.
Credit card debt keeps going up. 5% increase again last year. I guess by "discretionary funds", you mean that the credit limit on our credit card has gone up.......lot of people think that way.
Foreign imports always increase when the US economy is doing well. Trump's objective with China is to increase China's imports from the US by using reducing Chinese tariffs and trade restrictions on US goods and services. These negotiations continue. How are Trump's trade policies making US goods more expensive abroad ??
