Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Contrafactual, ahistorical, 💩

There is very little charted in the article below that a GOP president would not crow about, including, especially, Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/23/trump-biden-us-economy-compared/

Both presidents’ economic records have been defined by the pandemic and its aftershocks. The covid crisis upended the job market, stoked decades-high inflation and added trillions of dollars to the federal debt.

The economy today is vastly different than it was in 2017, when Trump took office. But the data shows just how each administration has left its mark: Biden, by adding 14 million jobs in less than three years, bringing the Black unemployment rate to a record low and reducing student loan debt by billions. Trump, meanwhile, presided over a period of low inflation, low interest rates and low gas prices.

Here are 12 charts showing the state of the economy now vs. under Trump.

1. Job gains
The astoundingly strong labor market is arguably the White House’s biggest victory. In some ways, the bump was inevitable — Biden took office at a time when millions were still out of work because of the pandemic. Even so, the rapid job gains in recent years have blown past economists’ expectations and have fueled the economy’s blockbuster growth.

Even more remarkable is that the labor market has remained strong, despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to slow the economy. As long as Americans are employed, they’ve been able to withstand inflation and keep spending, allowing the economy to grow.

Employers have created more than 14 million jobs during the Biden administration, with a monthly average of more than 400,000 positions. Recently, though, the pace of job creation has slowed, with 216,000 new jobs in December.

By contrast, the economy added an average 176,000 jobs a month during Trump’s first three years, before coronavirus-related closures and layoffs resulted in the sudden loss of more than 20 million jobs.

3. Economic growth
For the most part, the U.S. economy has expanded at a steady pace under both Trump and Biden. Gross domestic product, a measure of all of the goods and services produced in the country, has grown about 22 percent since Biden took office. That’s compared with a 14 percent uptick during Trump’s presidency, when the pandemic forced the economy into a steep and sudden recession. Even so, the economy rebounded quickly — thanks in part to trillions in stimulus money — and was growing again by the time Trump left office.

Now, under Biden, the economy has notched five straight quarters of growth following a six-month slump last year. The latest expansion has been powered by heavy consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of the economy, and new infrastructure and green-energy projects spearheaded by the Biden administration. But economists note that the current rate of economic growth — an annualized rate of 4.9 percent, as of September — is unsustainable, and many expect growth to cool next year.


9. Stock market
The stock market rose rapidly during Trump’s presidency and has continued its ascent under Biden. After a period of slowing last year — in anticipation of higher borrowing costs and increased volatility — stock prices have picked back up on optimism that the Fed is done raising interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq hit all-time highs last month, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 is on track to follow suit.

Trump kept a close eye on the stock market’s path during his presidency, often taking to social media to flaunt his successes. He also warned Americans that a Biden presidency would result in a “stock market collapse the likes of which you’ve never had.”

That has not happened — which the president was quick to note. “Good one, Donald,” Biden recently fired back on X.

Where Biden and Trump Started Their Presidencies in Three Sentences:

Comments

What’s left out in this analysis is what happened to the manufacturing sector. trump continuously claimed he was bringing manufacturing back to America, but until the pandemic, manufacturing jobs under trump grew no faster than in previous administrations.

Then the pandemic hit, and hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost. The pandemic wasn’t trump’s fault, but his poor handling of it was. We lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs that Biden not only restored, but added hundreds of thousands more. Biden created over a million manufacturing jobs.

Presidents sometimes get too much credit (and blame) for the economy, which is often out of their control. But the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS act, COVID relief bill and inflation reduction acts did specific things that helped restore manufacturing and kept us from slipping into recession.

Lastly- one aside about the graphs. Although the deficit for 2021 appears under Biden, the budget, congressional outlays and structure of the deficit were determined in 2020, under trump. The president spends their first year dealing with policies set before they take office.

Trump inherited from Obama -- low unemployment, an expanding economy, and a stable country.

Biden inherited from Trump -- high unemployment, an economy that had SHRUNK 3.5% Trump's last year in office, an uncontrolled pandemic, an unstable government, the fallout from a failed siege of the US Capitol, a weakened NATO, and a variety of other calamities both large and small.

Trump inherited a well-running country from Obama while Biden inherited a complete mess from Trump.

Trump won’t say if COVID vaccines work: ‘Not a great thing to talk about’ as a Republican.
That's a headline from "The Hill" on June 20, 2023.

Trump was a coward and didn't want to go against the anti-vax Republican crowd he helped create. At times Trump praised his own efforts to get the vaccines approved. At other times he took the coward's path because he is a coward.