U.S. GDP Growth Hits 4.1%! Trump's Strong Economy Is "Lifting All Boats"

[Harpy Eagle]

Outpacing all expectations, U.S. GDP grew an amazing 4.1% in the second quarter of this year, with much of that growth being fueled by large increases in consumer spending and exports. Why? Well, because thanks to the Trump tax cuts, tens of millions of consumers have a lot more money in their pockets, and because Trump's protectionist trade policies have contributed to a large increase in exports (exports jumped by a whopping 9.3% in the second quarter).

Trump's rising-tide economy is lifting all boats, including the least-educated workers who were hit the hardest by the 2008-2010 recession:

It has been two decades since the U.S. enjoyed sustained economic growth above 3 percent, and it turns out that a rising tide really does lift all boats.

The New York Times reports:

"The least educated American workers, who took the hardest hit in the Great Recession, were also among the slowest to harvest the gains of the recovery. Now they are a striking symbol of a strong economy.

"The unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma fell to 5.1 percent in July, the Labor Department reported Friday, the lowest since the government began collecting data on such workers in 1992. At the economy’s nadir in the summer of 2009, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts hit 15.6 percent, more than three times the peak unemployment rate for college graduates.…

"'As economists, we worried these workers would be shut out forever,’ she said. ‘But the long duration of the recovery has pulled them back in. As the economy adds more jobs, employers have had to dig a little deeper. . . .’"

How much of this can President Trump take credit for? Certainly, he has benefited from the economy’s recovery from the financial crisis, which was already complete before he came into office. But under President Obama, the economy “recovered” to relatively slow growth. There is a good case to be made that under Trump, growth has been accelerated by the tax cuts pushed through Congress and his deregulatory efforts. . . . It’s not as good as Reagan’s “morning again in America,” which saw five straight quarters of growth above 7 percent, but it’s better than anything we’ve seen in a long time. (New Economic Growth Shows A Rising Tide Really Does Lift All Boats)​

Another positive sign of strong economic growth is the enormous jump in manufacturing jobs and the fact that most of those new jobs are in durable goods. Since January through July of this year (August's stats won't out for two more weeks), the economy has added 173,000 manufacturing jobs, whereas we actually suffered a net loss in manufacturing jobs during Obama's eight years! The last time the economy added that many manufacturing jobs in a seven-month period was . . . 1984 (Bureau of Labor Statistics Data -- set the date range to 1981 to 2018). So we are seeing truly historic growth in manufacturing jobs.

In defending his massive tax-cut proposal (which, by the way, included a huge tax cut for the rich), JFK stated that "a rising tide lifts all boats." We are seeing that truth verified once again. It's not rocket science: When you let people keep more of their own money, when you make it less expensive for our businesses to operate, and when you let our businesses keep more of their profits, the economy grows and everybody benefits.

Well my boat has not lifted at all. Kinda like everyone I know who is falling further behind.

You'd have to be a complete idiot to not be able to thrive in this environment

How does the average American thrive?

They work hard and they do things to improve their lot in life, as in saving, more training/education.