Remember how President Obama said that you can’t just wave a magic wand and bring jobs back? You don’t need a magic wand when you’re Trump and you cut regulations, reduce the corporate tax rate, and cut taxes.
The Labor Department released its monthly hiring and unemployment figures for August on Friday morning, providing one of the better snapshots of the state of the American economy. 201,000 jobs were added. Economists had expected a gain of about 190,000.
Average hourly earnings rose by an impressive 0.4 percent after growing by 0.3 percent in July. The year-over-year gain was 2.9 percent, up from 2.7 percent. The unemployment rate remained at 3.9 percent.
Anxieties over trade and tariffs did little to dent a 95-month streak of job creation as employers once again fattened their payrolls, and wages kicked up.
Over the past six months, 781,000 part-time workers have moved to full-time jobs.
Indeed, according to the headlines, the U.S. did supposedly add 201,000 jobs, and if all one ever did was to go by headlines, one might think things were really going great.
However, according to the Marketwatch article “U.S. adds 201,000 jobs as worker wages accelerate to nine-year high” by Jeffry Bartash published Sept. 7, 2018, employment gains for July and June were revised down by a combined 50,000, the Labor Department said Friday, which gives us a real good idea of exactly how it is that this headline game is played – report something inflated and not true to gull the huge number if suckers in America who are easily misled by fake news from the federal government, and then, months later, when no one is looking, report the numbers as they actually were.
As to jobs “created” single-handedly by Trump, who is not only a magician, but an economic wonder-worker as well, white-collar professional firms filled 53,000 positions, which is good if you happen to be a white-collar professional.
Health-care providers hired 33,000 people, transport firms added 20,000 jobs and construction companies hired 23,000 workers.
However, and here one has to wonder how the MAGA-MAN Trump allowed this to happen, employment fell by 3,000 in manufacturing, the first decline in 13 months.
There is a number that should have been sky-rocketing, not declining, so in a few months when this data get revised, maybe we will see that number shoot up into the hundreds of thousands.
And retailers also cut jobs, so what is up with that?
As to that huge increase in pay, this is what that same Marketwatch article has to say, to wit:
Consumers are feeling more of the brunt of inflation.
Most if not all of the increase in pay over the past year has been eaten up by higher inflation.
The cost of living as measured by the consumer price index has also climbed 2.9% in the past year.
end quotes
Which is to say, the Trumpian economy is working exactly as he and “Kuddles” Kudlow designed it to work, which is to continue the upward transfer of wealth in America that feeds the ONE PERCENT who are Trump’s best friends and buddies.
Give with one hand and take back with the other.
On another note, since we are talking about the amazing miracle of the Trumpian economy here in America, according to the Marketwatch story “U.S. trade deficit soars nearly 10% on record imports” by Jeffry Bartash published Sept. 5, 2018, the trade deficit soared almost 10% in July after record imports and hit the highest level in five months, keeping the U.S. on pace to record the largest annual gap in a decade, climbing to $50.1 billion from a revised $45.7 billion in June, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
The U.S. trade deficit added up to almost $338 billion in the first seven months of 2018, compared to $316 billion in the same span in 2017, as imports rose 0.9% to a record $261.2 billion in July.
Meanwhile, under Trump’s firm guiding hand, exports fell 1% to $211.1 billion.
According to the Marketwatch article, President Trump’s tough line with key trading partners such as China and Canada hasn’t had much effect, either, so that the July goods deficit with China, for example, leaped to a record high of nearly $37 billion.
That should have the people in China cheering Trump’s name at least as loud as it is being cheered here in America, if not louder.
Asian countries for Asians.
Black countries for Blacks.
but White countries for everybody?
That’s genocide.
Anti-racist is a codeword for Anti-White
And while we are on the timely topic of the economic miracle Trump has wrought in America, a miracle incidentally that former president Barack Hussein Obama is taking credit for in the Marketwatch article “Obama claims ownership of U.S.’s economic recovery as he blasts Trump” by Steve Goldstein published Sept. 7, 2018 where we were told that former President Barack Obama on Friday used a speech at the University of Illinois to sharply criticize his successor as well as claim ownership of the U.S. economic recovery, we can’t leave out the Marketwatch story “Factory orders slump 0.8% in July” by Steve Goldstein published Sept. 6, 2018 where we are informed as follows about the economic miracle Obama is claiming as his own, to wit:
Factory orders fell 0.8% in July, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.’
June’s order growth was downwardly revised a tenth to 0.6%.
end quotes
Some economic miracle is my thought.
Not much for Obama to be crowing about, anyway, but that lack of substance has never bothered Obama in the past, so it should come as no surprise it doesn’t bother him now, and besides, Obama is an elitist who thinks we are stupid, so he probably doesn’t believe we have the intelligence to connect the dots here so as to be able to call Obama out on these claims of greatness he is making above here.
Silly him for thinking that is my thought, anyway.
How about you, America, how do you see it?
And while we are on the subject of the miraculous Trumpian economy, this is just in from Marketwatch in the article “U.S. budget deficit widens to fifth-highest ever, CBO reports” by Steve Goldstein published Sept 11, 2018, to wit:
The U.S. budget deficit in August was $211 billion, nearly double the gap during the year-ago month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated late Monday.
end quotes
But hey, it is only money.
As to what the Trumpian miracle economy is costing us, the Marketwatch article reports that net interest on public debt jumped 25%.
We have to borrow that money, afterall, to make the miracle occur, and that borrowed money does not come free.
Not at all surprisingly, federal government receipts fell by 3%, with corporate taxes dropping by $5 billion.
Big surprise there, right?
As Marketwatch tells us, the budget deficit is widening in a big way, so that in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the deficit was $895 billion, which is $222 billion more than the previous year.
And corporate taxes have plummeted by 30% this fiscal year, both because of the lower rate as well as the expanded ability to immediately deduct the full value of equipment purchases.
As to how the average worker is making out in this Trumpian miracle economy which is doing a bang-up job of transferring wealth upward to the ONE PERCENT, we have the Marketwatch article “Consumer inflation climbs again in August, CPI shows, but pace of increase slows” by Jeffry Bartash published Sept. 13, 2018 to consider, as follows:
The increase in inflation over the past year has mostly offset rising wages.
After adjusting for inflation, hourly wages rose a scant 0.1% in August.
They are up just 0.2% in the past year.
end quotes
So, yes, the average American worker appears to be making more under Trump.
But that money merely passes through the hands of the average American worker, it doesn’t stay in his or her pocket to make them richer.
Which means the American economy is functioning just as it was designed to do.