Below are a few good news economic stories you might have missed since the media created recession fears have been negated by the robust U.S. economy.
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The anti-Trump talking-down-the-economy crowd has America already in a recession, with POLITICO’s Morning Money leading its Thursday morning news with, “…manufacturing in recession and capital expenditures dropping, the strong consumer is the final leg holding up the U.S. economy. But the length of the workweek dipped in July, often a leading signal that employers are cutting back. A sharp slowdown in job creation could follow.”
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The U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate remained at 3.7%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.
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U.S. productivity grew at a strong 3.4% rate in the January-March quarter, the best showing in more than four years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was an encouraging sign that productivity may finally be improving after a long stretch of weakness. The first quarter gain was more than double the 1.3% increase in the fourth quarter, although it was slightly lower than an initial estimate of 3.6% made a month ago. Labor costs fell during the first quarter, declining by 1.6% following a 0.4% drop in the fourth quarter. Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, is a key factor determining an economy’s growth potential. If the current rebound continues, it would provide support for President Donald Trump’s efforts to achieve sustained 3% growth rates. The slight downward revision in productivity reflected the fact that overall output, as measured by gross domestic product, was revised down from an initial estimate of 3.2% growth to 3.1% growth in the first quarter. The 3.4% advance in productivity was the strongest increase since a 3.7% rise in the third quarter of 2014. Productivity has risen 2.4% over the past four quarters, the best performance since a 2.7% four-quarter gain…
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by Bethany Blankley The U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is more than $21 trillion, dwarfing the economies of most other countries in the world. China’s GDP hovers over $14 trillion; Japan’s over $5 trillion. The U.S. is neither the largest country by land mass nor population (4.4 percent of the world’s population) yet its GDP represents 24.2 percent of the global GDP. Most Americans can’t appreciate or comprehend how large these GDPs are, explains Mark J. Perry, professor of finance and business economics at the University of Michigan-Flint and scholar at The American Enterprise Institute. That’s why he creates a map every year comparing economies of states to countries to “help people understand how enormously large the U.S. economy is,” he told The Center Square. Four states, California, Texas, New York and Florida, produced more than $1 trillion in output. If they were each countries, they would have ranked in the world’s 16 largest economies in 2018. California’s GDP was greater than the United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (U.K.); Texas’ was larger than Canada’s; New York’s was larger than Russia’s, and Florida’s is comparable to Indonesia’s. Combined, they produced nearly $7.5 trillion in economic output…
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by Tim Pearce The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, smashing experts’ expectations, according to the Department of Commerce (DOC) data released Friday. Economists predicted that the federal government shutdown and cold weather that slowed economic activity in parts of the country early in the year would drag down growth. Experts’ predicted that the economy would grow at a much slower rate of 2.3 percent from January to March, according to Bloomberg. The U.S. economy grew at 2.2 percent growth in the final quarter of 2018, according to Commerce Department data. The 2019 growth is being driven largely by companies restocking inventories and a shrinking trade deficit with foreign countries. State and local governments’ spending also stimulated some growth, according to The Washington Post. Typically, the first quarter of the year is the one with the weakest growth, though experts are predicting that to change in 2019, WaPo reports. President Donald Trump has pledged to bring the U.S. economy to 3 percent growth rates or better. Over the course of 2018, the economy grew at an average pace of 2.9 percent, tying the highest growth rate of the Obama…
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