Economist and failed Donald Trump Federal Reserve pick Stephen Moore penned a recent op-ed where he blasted former Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that Trump has “squandered” the economy he inherited from himself and Barack Obama.
“Donald Trump inherited a strong economy from Barack and me,” Biden said at a recent rally. “Things were beginning to really move. And just like everything else he’s inherited, he’s in the midst of squandering it.”
A laughable point, and “What’s next? Jimmy Carter taking credit for the Reagan boom?” Moore quipped in the Washington Times, calling it revisionist history to explain the “booming economy in the third year of Mr. Trump’s presidency.” (To that I’ll say the third quarter’s 1.9% GDP isn’t exactly “booming,” but back to Moore’s argument …)
Moore, who withdrew from Federal Reserve consideration after he was attacked by the left as nothing more than a Trump yes man for the supposedly independent Fed, then put out some solid facts:
“Today we are at or below record levels of unemployment, inflation and interest rates in half-a-century,” he wrote. “Wages and salaries are rising at their fastest clip in at least two decades. There are an all-time high 7 million unfilled jobs in the United States.”
Moore then goes on to blast the Washington Post for saying Trump is inflating his economic numbers and how three years ago these same “Trump haters” promised his presidency would cause a “global financial calamity” and a “second Great Depression,” and the at the stock market would “never” recover, which has obviously not been the case — far from it in fact, as the S&P 500 is setting new records this week.
“Now, whoops, with the economy surging, all of a sudden, it is just Mr. Obama’s doing. The double standard here is so transparent that only someone suffering from TDS — Trump Derangement Syndrome — would miss it,” Moore wrote. “If the economy were crashing today, the left would say that it’s all Mr. Trump’s fault. But with the economy doing quite well, Mr. Obama gets the credit.”
The Obama argument is “leaky at best,” Moore continued, because his recovery was the weakest from a recession since the end of World War II, with the expansion growing by just 14% over seven years of the recovery. In a normal recovery, the economy usually grows by about 27% and in the last year of the Obama era, the economy slowed to a “piddly 1.6% growth,” Moore wrote.
I’m certainly not defending Obama here but it doesn’t really make sense when Moore says his final year 1.6% is “piddly,” and Trump’s 1.9% third-quarter GDP and sub-2% projections for 2019 are “booming,” but then Moore starts making some good points on wage growth.
“Income growth had grown in Mr. Obama’s second term, but it flattened out in 2016 — and the surge in middle-class incomes started to accelerate in early 2017, after Mr. Trump took office,” he wrote. “Middle-class incomes have grown almost three times faster under Mr. Trump than Mr. Obama. This is like trading in a Pinto for a Porsche and as you are flying 80 miles down the highway saying this is just a trend.
“Small business and consumer confidence as well as the stock market surged in the days after the Trump election and have stayed high ever since. Coincidence? Hardly. ”
This occurred because of Trump’s tax cuts and reversal of many of Obama’s new regulations.
“Mr. Obama raised tax rates, Mr. Trump cut them. Mr. Obama grew regulations at a record pace, Mr. Trump has been rescinding them at a record pace,” Moore wrote. “Mr. Obama negotiated the Paris Climate Accord — a $100 billion tax on the American economy — and Mr. Trump smartly pulled us out.
“Mr. Obama passed Obamacare, Mr. Trump has been every day finding ways around the law they called the Affordable Care Act, in order to reverse stampeding health costs and try to make health care ‘affordable.'”
Moore goes on to say the economy is far from perfect (though, Trump said this morning it’s “The greatest economy in American history!”) and the latest weaknesses in industrial production and manufacturing are worrisome, but that’s largely due to the ongoing trade war with China, a necessary evil.
The greatest threat to the continued expansion, Moore says, is a return to “Obamanomics,” meaning a Biden presidency.
“But the biggest threat to the economy right now is that we repeal the Trump growth policies and return to Obamanomics,” he wrote. “This is what Mr. Biden is promising, and if it comes to pass we will learn the bitter lesson that the good old days under Mr. Obama — really weren’t so good at all.”
Editor’s note:
Economist Peter Schiff replied to Trump’s tweet this morning about it being “the greatest” economy in U.S. history, basically saying he is lying about its strength and that will come back to bite him come election time — though, he was clear about not wanting a Democrat to take over in 2020.
No I don’t. By pretending the economy is great when its not Trump will help elect one of those Dems. Telling the truth about the economy is why Trump won in 2016. Lying about it is why he will lose in 2020!
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) October 30, 2019
Trump’s ceaseless hyperbole and Moore’s contradictory statements about Trump’s GDP vs. Obama’s GDP aside, what do you think about the current strength of the economy, and what Schiff said? The economy is clearly still growing but is it working for you? What about wealth inequality? Share your thoughts below.