Discussion: US Added 213,000 Jobs In June, Unemployment Rose To 4 Percent

As far as the economy is concerned, the Trump administration was born on third base and stole second.

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However 212,000 of those were for lawyers hired to sue the Trump Crime Family…

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Goddamnit Obama, why are you still fucking with the US!

Please leave us and go back to the country your loyalty really lies with Russia…er I mean Kenya!

Average hourly pay rose just 2.7 percent from a year earlier. The low jobless rate has yet to force employers to offer higher wages in order to fill job openings.

Too bad they can’t get a big tax cut and share that with their people. Another goddamn to you too, Ds in congress!

And in other news
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mar-a-lago-seeks-permission-to-hire-40-more-foreign-workers-on-h-2-visas/ar-AAzDHqn?li=BBnbfcL
Mar-a-Lago seeks permission to hire 40 more foreign workers on H-2 visas

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The broader U.S. economy appears to be on sturdy ground. Economists are forecasting that economic growth accelerated to an annual pace of roughly 4 percent during the April-June quarter, about double the previous quarter’s pace.

The AP must be doing business out of the WH. What bullshit.

GDP 2017 was about 2%. Even at 2.2%, still not good. And much of that is simply WS front-running on the corporate tax cut giveaways. Reagan did something similar but in the process tripled the debt.

And the 2nd qtr 4% ‘forecast’ is already down to 3%.

Consumer spending (watch out) is at 1% annually, the lowest it’s been in five years.

But when a 'pub gets on TV and says ‘economy booming’, no one counters with the available numbers, or simply states ‘not so, numbers say otherwise’. Very discouraging because Trump runs hard on this message. Someone should challenge this accepted BS.

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Although the tax cut was intended to benefit Republican benefactors it did have a stimulus effect. That means we have a stimulus during a strengthening economy. The positive results are to be expected. Of course the deficits generated are enormous and unending, but professional economists don’t worry that much about the deficit. Republicans only worry about the deficit when Democrats are in charge.

The real wild card is the brand new trade war. I am not really sure Trump isn’t trying to fight yesterday’s war. We need a much smarter affirmative approach to economic development, something Republican economic orthodoxy doesn’t permit.

Despite all the good news the stock market is still dealing with a 3 week decline and has never really recovered from the correction just a few months old. The index funds are still down for the year.

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Thanks a lot, Obama!

Democrats have to fight back hard on the misreporting of the economic news, because Trump is eating their lunch on an issue which should be a Democratic win.

The Trump economy (2018 onward, roughly since the tax cuts) has seen a slowdown in GDP growth, a rise in inflation, a fall of the stock market, falling wages–AND this is against the background of a trillion dollar tax cut for the rich that has failed utterly to stimulate the economy and will bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid.

I get that your average person won’t understand anything except their anecdotal situation, but surely the MSM can be put under pressure to get things straight. Dems: the economy sucks. We’re being driven into national bankruptcy to enrich the Kochs and other billionaires. The Titanic is steaming toward the iceberg and everyone in first class has already bailed.

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I hear what you’re saying but Obama underperformed regarding the economy in his 2nd term, after stabilizing the economy in his 1st term.

See what you’re saying but you’re leaving out the most important thing - that the “strengthening economy” benefited the 1% and Corporate America only. Middle-class workers were left with a few bucks when scaled against the gains of the wealthy.

I have a number of issues with Obama, but the economy itself isn’t one. His stimulus, auto-industry bailouts and support for Barney-Frank were exactly what the economy needed at the time. His biggest problem after 2010 was Racio-Fascist intransigence in the Congress. Without that, I would have expected policies that would have boosted wages rather than stock prices. But still, having avoided a new depression, brought on by Fascist economic policies, he managed to grow the economy more than any of the world’s other major economies (except China of course).

Trump was able to stick his lie that the economy wasn’t doing well because of the poor wage growth. In that, the Racio-Fascist party in Congress succeeded.

I didn’t say it was a very effective stimulus, but it was a stimulus. When a publicly traded company buys back stock a lot of that cash flows to upper middle class people. Some of those people suddenly have a little extra jingle in their pockets. They rent another condo and buy another Mercedes to park in the garage. That helps a local economy.

There are parts of America that are doing very well, indeed. Unfortunately those areas don’t include Trump country. Trump country has been neglected for at least a generation. Those are the people of his base, the people he keeps promising the stars and the moon. That is why he has a full 1/3 of the country on his side. Republican politicians haven’t promised them shit for a very long time and the Democrats long ago abandoned Trump country. As Trump country falls further and further behind the level of desperation rises.

James Carville famously said “it is the economy, stupid.” He was right, it is always the economy. Improve the Trump country economy and improve benefits provided to people who think they are falling further behind every year, and watch a lot of tension fall away. Trump can’t do that and the Washington regulars won’t do that so the country is drifting toward a disaster.

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Also, a stock market gaining about 25% the year following his election had a stimulus effect. Many people have retired due to expectation of a rising market and healthy retirement accounts.The Washington Post did a story on people feeling better off and secure in retiring after the market zoomed past 25,000 points. If they did not pull out of the market at the time, they may be returning to the work force due to an eroding stock market. That… and rising costs in all areas. I can see why many people would stay invested because banks are paying squat for interest.

I would have retired last year if I could depend on the stock market not collapsing but I can’t. This year we had a significant correction and the market has never fully rebounded. Trump’s trade war has made it impossible for the market. Of course, parking money in a bank is silly. They don’t pay shit for interest.

No, the middle class is between a rock and a hard place. I don’t see any way out until the folks in Washington realize that just because their local District of Columbia community is booming the rest of the economy really isn’t. We need real economic policy, not magical “market” thinking.

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Wow…such a perfect description!

I sold all my tech holdings and set up a diverse energy portfolio after the 2016 election. It’s done well overall, despite the demise of the solar industry. I offset that with select financials (added later) and bond holdings + cash. I rebalance when the ratios get out of whack by 20% or more. Mix of caution and risk. The rebalancing is important.

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Energy? My energy ETFs haven’t done all that well this year.

I almost never buy ETFs. In energy especially it’s important to stock pick. My current holdings are GLOP, NEP, BIP (batman stocks that formerly included BAM), and PEGI. My solar holding was CAFD, which no longer exists. I added SRCI in late 2017 but sold it too early (March 2018) as I’m wont to do. I keep the dividend payers on DRIP.