Trump Claims Credit for the Economy Not So Fast Says Obama.

Trump Claims Credit for the Economy. Not So Fast, Says Obama.

After a long period of silence, Mr. Obama expressed his exasperation on Friday. “When you hear how great the economy’s doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” he said in a speech kicking off a midterm campaign blitz. “When you hear about this economic miracle that’s been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers, suddenly Republicans are saying it’s a miracle. I have to kind of remind them, actually, those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016.”

Growth since the recession of 2008-09 has been slower than after any other recession since World War II, and the distribution of the growth has been less equal than in the past. But growth has also been unusually steady, set in motion by Mr. Obama’s extraordinary economic interventions early in his presidency. This is now one of the longest periods of uninterrupted economic growth in American history, with 95 straight months of job creation.

In the 19 months starting after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the economy has created 3.58 million new jobs — but that is still shy of the 3.96 million created in the last 19 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency. The nation’s economy has grown at a steadily higher pace in the past year than it did during the end of Mr. Obama’s term, reaching an annualized rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter of this year. But the last time it was that high was in 2014 — when Mr. Obama was in charge.

 

Six months ago we unleashed an economic miracle.....

 

Duh. In the 19 months starting after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the economy has created 3.58 million new jobs — but that is still shy of the 3.96 million created in the last 19 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency.