ET:
U.S. GDP growth surged to 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, beating the experts’ estimates of a 2.3 percent. It’s the best first quarter performance since 2015, despite the 35-day shutdown of the U.S. government, the longest in American history. The first 25 days of the year the federal government was literally out of business, and yet by comparison, U.S. economic growth was just 2 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
What does the economy’s stellar first quarter performance of 2019 tell us about consumer sentiment, wages, tariffs on Chinese imports, and an economic slowdown in China and Europe? Quite a lot, actually.
Consumer Spending Leads the Way
Leading the charge was consumer spending. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the rising GDP “reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures private inventory investment, exports, state and local government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment.”
In short, the growth was led by consumers making more money and spending more money, driving businesses to add more inventory.
That’s a natural outcome when wages are rising relative to consumer price inflation, of which there was virtually none. The laws of supply and demand are powerful forces, as is consumer sentiment. As the economy grows and unemployment falls, demand for labor rises, and so the price of labor (wages) rises as well. As wages rise relative to prices, people feel better about their future and spend more.
Even with the nearly month-long government shutdown and a fall in U.S. oil exports, the economy still grew. What’s more, oil prices, which are typically excluded from the cost of living calculation, dropped rapidly. This is because of the explosion of supply on the world market. Despite Venezuela’s dwindling oil production and Trump’s escalation of sanctions on Iran that have slowed Iranian oil exports to a trickle, thanks to America’s shale oil production, the world’s oil supplies are greater than ever. more here
People who dislike President Trump are either jealous, insane or insanely jealous of his success.
You have to be insane to actually want to bring about a recession in order to make yourself look better or a Communist who wants America to fail and collapse. Either way it just goes to show that the Left is so unaccomplished and inadequate they have to drag everyone and everything down to their level of Suck just to begin to compete! I have no idea what they have to offer anyone… except Illegals! That makes them criminals in my mind!
On the other hand, President Trump is very active, involved and inspiring. While some may not like how he says things, there is no denying that the man is right and the results prove it!
But https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-3percent-20170519-story.html
2017 😉
LCD – I’d like to ask Jason Furball how good it could really be if the democRATs actually helped instead of hinder and obstruct President Trump’s efforts!!
Ohhhhhhhh wait…. that’s right, I forgot, they only care about how much they can enrich themselves instead of empowering the American people!
It’s great how “the expert” bubbleheads are constantly
low balling Trumps rocket hot economy and getting their “expert” heads handed back to them by The Real Expert?
Gotta love that Donald!
The magic wand: not having a traitor in the white house.