The United States Economy
By mynameiskate
@mynameiskate (2574)
August 25, 2020 6:36am CST
Trump says the United States Economy is great...the best it has ever been, ever! Is that true or false? I'm asking this question because with all the information out there I'm not sure. Any insights? I'm not an economics expert.
I see trump as an entertainer, not a president. He lies and exaggerates. But on the economy I can't state true facts.
I made the graph above. Yes, it is rather crude and doesn't represent anything except what I think might be happening?
The red line represents wealth before the trump got elected. The blue line represents what he says happened. Great stuff until the pandemic. But he did amazing things or so he says. The black line represents reality.
So I wonder what really is true? I do understand economies always go up unless there is a disaster like a pandemic or depression. When he says it is doing so much better isn't that normal growth and he had little to do with it? I wonder what the truth really is.
7 people like this
8 responses
@owlwings (43907)
• Cambridge, England
25 Aug 20
"The economy" is a complex and difficult statistic to interpret and even more difficult to forecast. On the whole, of course, people like to see it go up, because it makes them feel good, so forecasts tend to be optimistic and that makes people feel optimistic which, in turn, encourages them to invest and so the economy actually does rise.
Well, that's just my very simplistic view of it, which I freely admit s probably completely unscientific and wholly wrong!
Here's one analysis and forecast, which has a graph resembling yours (minus the red/blue line). It may or may not be accurate, depending, perhaps, on who compiled it and what their political affiliations are!:
US economic conditions are beginning to improve, but the recovery will be slow
2 people like this
@mynameiskate (2574)
•
26 Aug 20
Being a novice on economics is frustrating plus how you described this adds to the frustration. It is like the true figures are hidden in some complicated maze and manipulated by agenda. For the average folk the truth is hidden from view it seems.
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@amitkokiladitya (171927)
• Agra, India
25 Aug 20
I won't believe his words at all. Especially after this pandemic no place is left with a strong economy
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@porwest (95308)
• United States
25 Aug 20
The truth is that this IS one of the best economies we have seen. You have to, of course, discount any data from the pandemic. But we have had record GDP growth, record stock market growth, record labor participation, record low unemployment across all sectors and groups, we have seen record improvement in median income...there is a LOT going on that is good. But none of that will be shared by the media.
@porwest (95308)
• United States
26 Aug 20
@mynameiskate The strong uptick in unemployment is due to the pandemic and the shutdowns. But unemployment fell below 4% which is historically low. In addition, black, Hispanic, and women unemployment were all at record lows under Trump. Before the pandemic we also had near record labor participation rates, which just means, more people were working than they had in decades. For the first time in decades as well there was a significant rise in median income.
@mynameiskate (2574)
•
26 Aug 20
Can you shine some light on just one of the things mentioned?
It may be true what you wrote as I said before I'm not an economics expert. What I don't get is when looking at this graph from NY times on unemployment rate for example. Where is the record? To say it is doing better than before at some point is fine but to say it is a "record" - is that actually true? Record from what time period?
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