Tipsheet

Today's Economic Report Was A Sledgehammer To The Faces Who Thought Trump Couldn't Do It

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  July 27, 2018 12:55 PM

Katie wrote up the great news. The second quarter numbers were projected to be four percent or more, and they were right. It came in a 4.1 percent, the best performance in nearly four years. The Trump White House and the Republicans can and should do a victory lap. It’s a great day for our country. Ever since the Trump tax cuts were signed into law, a better job creating and investing climate has been created. Consumer and small business confidence have reached their highest marks in years. Unemployment dropped to an 18-year low. It remains that way at four percent. Wages have gone up. Three million jobs have been created. Three million workers have received bonuses (averaging $1,000, but in some cases, $3,000 checks were doled out) thanks to the Trump economy, along with over 250 companies who have benefitted from the Trump Administration’s economic agenda. So, let’s trip down memory lane, where Paul Krugman of The New York Times, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama thought that three percent economic growth was a pipe dream. 


NYT:

It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?

Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.

Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

[…]

So we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight. I suppose we could get lucky somehow. But on economics, as on everything else, a terrible thing has just happened.

Lady Macbeth:

“Here’s the deal. He can’t escape the math,” Clinton said. “And economists, left, right, in the middle, all say the same thing — that Trump’s policies would throw us into a recession, the last thing we need. He would undermine the growth that we have had since the Great Recession.”

Obama: [Relevant portion begins at 2:31 mark]:


But for those folks who have lost their job right now because a plant went down the Mexico, that isn’t going to make you feel better. And so what we have to do is to make sure that folks are trained for the jobs that are coming in now because some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back, and when somebody says, like the person you just mentioned who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back, well how exactly are you going to do that? What are you going to do?

There’s — there’s no answer to it. He just says, “Well, I’m going to negotiate a better deal.” Well, how — what — how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually, the answer is he doesn’t have an answer.

Mark Cuban:

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If there’s one thing investors hate, it’s unpredictability, and there’s nothing more unpredictable than a Donald Trump presidency, according to billionaire Mark Cuban.

The Dallas Mavericks owner, who’s been a staunch Trump opponent throughout this election cycle, took it up a notch on Tuesday, telling Fox Business host Neil Cavuto the stock market will go into a tailspin if Trump wins the White House.

“In the event Donald wins, I have no doubt in my mind the market tanks,” Cuban said. “If the polls look like there’s a decent chance that Donald could win, I’ll put a huge hedge on that’s over 100% of my equity positions… that protects me just in case he wins.”

The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times, and CNN (of course), all said this could never happen. As I’ve said, and many others here at Townhall and elsewhere, Trump will surprise you—and in good ways. He trips up at times, but the media’s reaction is so over the top he’s able to coast to the next item. As with his business career, never count him out, especially when he’s down. He’s given conservatives almost everything what they want, he’s cut regulations, initiated substantial tax reforms, heavily gutted Obamacare, boosted military spending, and moved the U.S. Embassy to Israel. Now, he has a 3+ million job creating record and an economy growing at four percent. As for tariffs, well, that is a major policy departure from the GOP, but he came out on top with the European Union this week (via Reuters):

The European Union’s budget commissioner suggested on Wednesday the bloc would be ready to discuss mutual tariff cuts with the United States across a range of products, provided Washington lifts recent punitive tariffs first.

[…]

“Firstly, our common line is that we expect the existing punitive tariffs to be lifted,” Oettinger, a German, said of the EU’s position. “Then we are ready to discuss a reduction and restructuring of all tariffs in all sectors.”

“In this way, we want to avoid a further escalation of the trade conflict, and to avoid a trade war,” he told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. “One could try to untangle the existing tariffs and then ... reduce tariffs for various goods and services.”

The Dow surged afterwards. 

While most predicted Armageddon with Trump and the markets, it hasn’t shown. The Dow Jones surged past 25,000 again this month. In 2017, it had a 5,000-point surge, the largest annual gain ever. It looks like you don’t need a magic wand, looking at you Barry—you just need policies that don’t suck. And that means not electing any more Democrats. If you want to have economic torpor, vote for the party of Nancy Pelosi who can’t even get a campaign slogan right for her crew. You want her and her ilk at the helm. This is what’s at stake come November.