JOEL KOTKIN: FAKE NEWS AND THE ECONOMY:
Perhaps no president in recent history has more pressure on him to perform economic miracles than Donald Trump. As someone who ran on the promise that he could fix the economy — and largely won because of it — Trump faces two severe challenges, one that is largely perceptual and another more critical one that is very real.
To start, Trump must cope with the widespread idea, accepted by much of the media, that we are experiencing something of an “Obama boom.”
He is widely portrayed as inheriting a very strong economy, notes MSNBC, in which the U.S. is “the envy of the world.” Fortune sees Trump inheriting “the best economy in a generation.”
Yet this is more a matter of perception than reality, a kind of “fake news.” To be sure, President Barack Obama inherited a disastrous economy from George W. Bush and can claim, with some justification, that on his watch millions of jobs were restored and the economy achieved steady, if unspectacular, growth. Under Obama average GDP growth has been almost twice as high as under his predecessor, but roughly half that of either President Reagan or Clinton.
Less appreciated, however, are the fundamental long-term weaknesses in the U.S. economy that Obama and Bush have left for Trump. A recent report from the U.S. Council on Competitiveness details a litany of profound, lingering flaws — historically slow growth, rising inequality, stagnant incomes, slumping productivity and declining lifespans. As the report concludes: “The Great Recession may be over, but America is dangerously running on empty.”
On the other hand, if people thought the economy was as good as the press has been claiming, would Trump have won?
UPDATE: From the comments:
I’d be delighted if Trump started his first State of The Union speech with, “My fellow citizens, after many years of being absolutely lied to, by both politicians and the media that support them, I’d like to throw a monkey wrench in their spin-jobs and tell you some rock solid facts, quoting the statistics from the government agencies responsible. Here’s what has been going on with the economy… labor participation rates… violent crime… illegal immigration… the revolving door of media, government service and political campaigns… size of the federal bureaucracy… how much of your tax money actually goes to the purposes they’re allocated for…”
Heh.