Originally Posted by Owain
Well, performance is what counts. For eight years, we suffered from anemic economic performance under the Obama administration, which finished 2016 at 1.8% gdp growth.

Trump is elected, and among other things, promised to reduce the government regulatory burden to stimulate the economy. He follows through on his promise, and a year later, the economy expands at 3%+ rate for 3 successive quarters, the best performance in 12 years.

So, instead if celebrating the improved performance in the economy, the left complains because it is happening during a Republican administration.

What kind of assholes do that?

Liberal assholes, that's who.


I think it's more analogous to a village chief in ancient times, that sacrificed his people to the "gods" with the promise that it would rain. Sometimes, after said sacrifice, it would in fact rain.

Crediting Trump with any economic improvement is like crediting Obama with the great crash. Or even laying credit for the crash solely on Bush, because the seeds were sown during Clinton. I really wish people would stop examining the world's phenomena solely through partisan lenses, the universe doesn't care about anyone's politics. It moves on it's own principles.

I checked some of those articles linked earlier, it was all opinion/editorial.

Look, it doesn't matter how much you like Trump. The fact is something as large and interconnected as an economy doesn't move quickly. It isn't agile. Even where various markets have seemingly sudden ups and downs, that is a result of many years of accumulating circumstances. I'll also note a recurring criticism I toted during the Obama admin during the "recovery" - that is, the way GDP is measured now includes a great many things that actually do not reflect generated wealth. It's quite possible for GDP to grow, without reflecting significant gains in most of the Main st economy.

Is that the case here? Although it looks like it at a glance, I am not totally sure. Our political situation and long term economic outlook has been too depressing the past couple of years for me to really go through the numbers and cobble together an actual analysis. Regardless, if it is the case, it would be something influenced by Obama-era policies, not Trump. Because the same principle applies whether discussing positive or negative developments - that is, it takes time for policy to influence the real world on a large scale.

For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)