Rep. Diane Black: Economic Optimism Is Back

Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) joined Charles Payne on Wednesday’s Fox News broadcast of ‘Cavuto Coast to Coast’ to discuss the possibility of a government shutdown, the inevitable blaming of Republicans by the mainstream media for it, and also the breaking news of Apple, Inc.’s decision to invest $350 billion in the United States which they say will create 20,000 new jobs. Payne opened the interview, asking, “Are the Republicans in danger of going into or cutting a deal that they don’t want because of PR pressure?” “We’re going to come out of this just fine,” Black answered. “There are always negotiations, as you know, Charles. Here in Congress we wait until the last minute which I don’t always agree with, but that’s where we are on this continuing resolution. In my opinion, we’re going to get a deal. We cannot, at this point in time, disrupt what you’ve already indicated, which is that the stock market is doing well.” Pivoting to the substance of the continuing resolution that the Democrats are balking at over the DACA non citizens, Black said, “We also need to fund our military, and this is very, very important that we don’t disrupt that. Right now, we have…

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Commentary: The Shocking Truth About Our Average Annual GDP ‘Growth’

Donald Trump

by Robert Romano   One of the greatest disappointments with the U.S. economy since the turn of the century has been its consistent underperformance, not growing above an inflation-adjusted average annual rate of 4 percent since 2000, and not above 3 percent since 2005. What has come in its stead the past 10 years is the slowest economic growth rate in U.S. history — even slower than the Great Depression. Restoring the U.S. to 3 percent or maybe even 4 percent growth has been one of President Donald Trump’s major goals, but getting there will not be so easy. Just take 2017. On an inflation-adjusted, annualized basis, there was 1.2 percent growth in the first quarter, 3.1 percent in the second quarter and 3.0 percent growth in the third quarter, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. So, to get to 3 percent growth for the year, we’d need 4.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter, right? Wrong. The actual answer would be 14.5 percent. Why? How is that possible? Because annual GDP growth is calculated by the taking the four readings of the real GDP using chained dollars for two consecutive years, averaging each year out…

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