Trump's "Greatest economy in the history of the world"

[Dardedar]

Trump boasted in August that in his first three years, before covid, he had “built the strongest economy in the history of the world.”
Ten points in response, all references are before covid.

1) Trump vowed that he would wipe away the U.S.'s trade deficits: "You will see a drop [in the trade deficit] like you’ve never seen before.”
"America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world rose to its highest level in history last year as the United States imported more goods than ever, including a record amount from China, ballooning the deficit to $891.3 billion.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/us/p ... ficit.html

2) Job growth? Obama’s was better.
Trump’s First 3 Years Created 1.5 Million Fewer Jobs Than Obama’s Last Three. And, 2019 was the slowest for American job growth since 2011.
“The best year for jobs during Trump's presidency -- 2.31 million in 2018 -- fails to reach the job growth in any of the three final years of Barack Obama's presidency.”
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-sho ... _fb_maddow

3) Economy? “Comparing the economy under Obama & Trump at the same point, the economy grew faster under Obama, hiring grew faster, the S&P 500 grew faster, the unemployment shrunk faster under Obama, and the national debt grew slower."
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show ... ep-trouble?

4) National Debt? Federal Government Breaks New Record for Spending.
“The federal government has spent more real money in the first seven months of fiscal year 2019 than any other year in U.S. history.” https://www.newsweek.com/trump-budget-d ... ng-1425588?

5) Bringing back manufacturing? Manufacturing Is Now Smallest Share of U.S. Economy in 72 Years
“Manufacturing made up 11% of gross domestic product in the second quarter, the smallest share in data going back to 1947 and down from 11.1% in the prior period…. Tariffs on Chinese products helped tip the manufacturing sector into recession earlier this year.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... n-72-years?

“The National Bureau of Economic Research said the current recession [in manufacturing] actually started in February, a month before the pandemic declaration. First-quarter GDP fell 5%.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/30/us-gdp- ... ading.html?

6) Stock market? Markets under Obama performed far better, before covid and currently.
In Obama’s first three years, the S&P index went up 57%. In Trump’s first 3 years, up 42%.
At three years in, Obama’s DOW was up 58%. Trump’s DOW up 42%.
https://www.newsweek.com/stock-market-t ... ma-1479381?

Trump is very impressed when the markets happen to hit a new high. From 2013 to 2017 Obama's DOW did this: "...the Dow has reached a new high, on average, once every seven days since fully recovering from the Great Recession in March 2013."
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/02/politics ... index.html

7) GDP growth? Trump’s Economic Growth Is Slower Than Obama’s Last 3 Years
“Over the 12 quarters Trump has been President only four of them have had GDP growth over 3% and six of the quarter’s growth was 2.3% or lower. In 2019 the adjusted growth rate was only 1.99%. This is less than Obama’s three last years in office and less than five of his last six years.”
A far cry from Trump’s claim that his economy could growth 4%, 5% or maybe even 6%.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones ... t-3-years/?

8.) Wage growth? Better under Obama.
“Inflation-adjusted median income rose $1,400 in the past two years, or 2.3% from 2016 to 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That compares with a 5% gain under former President Obama.” [Oct. 2019]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ctual-data?

9) Trade markets like you’ve never seen before? Maybe if you live in Canada.
Canada Wins Big From ‘America First’ Trade Policies
"China stopped buying agricultural products from U.S. farmers to retaliate... “Canada’s share of total Chinese imports of wheat has rocketed above 60% as U.S. exports plunged.” [Sept. 2019]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartande ... 92b0ea6af8

10) Farms & agriculture, busted and broke. In the US as of October 2019:
“40% of projected farm profit this year will come from trade aid, disaster assistance, federal subsidies and insurance payments. That’s $33 billion.” [Oct. 2019]
Party of “small government and no welfare” has become dependent on big government subsidies & welfare.”
https://www.axios.com/farmers-income-in ... 409fd.html

Farmers Union VP SAYS: "We lost pretty much all of our markets since Trump took over," Kuylen said. "
Since 2017, revenue from Chinese agricultural exports dropped by more than half,… The USDA also found that farm income has dropped 45% over the same period.” [Sept. 2019]
https://www.newsweek.com/china-trade-wa ... es-1457474?

Conclusion: Ranking the Trump Economy
Trump brags about U.S. prosperity, but conditions improved more under six of his last seven predecessors. (Carter beats him too.)
“Measured by 14 gauges of economic activity and financial performance, the U.S. economy is not doing as well under Trump as it did under all but one of the four Republicans and three Democrats who have occupied the White House since 1976.
The Trump years have been no better than average and mostly below average in 12 of the 14 measures.
Trump comes in sixth out of seven. Behind Carter, ahead of GW Bush.” [Jan. 2019]
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... n-carter-s

This is all before Covid.