U.S. Economy is strong and growing

President Biden’s determination to “build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” appears to be paying off. Last Friday the global financial services company Morgan Stanley credited Biden’s policies with driving a boom in large-scale infrastructure and manufacturing, a boom large enough that Morgan Stanley revised its gross domestic product growth projections upward to 1.9%, a projection almost four times higher than its original projection.

Analysts doubled their projections for the fourth quarter, and raised forecasts for next year, as well. “The economy in the first half of the year is growing much stronger than we had anticipated,” Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. economist Ellen Zentner wrote.

Part of their reasoning comes from a surge in manufacturing construction across the country thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which invests in roads, bridges, and other “hard” infrastructure projects; the Inflation Reduction Act, which invests in addressing climate change; and the CHIPS and Science Act, which invests in science and semiconductor chip manufacturing. During the 2010s, manufacturing construction generally held at about $50–80 billion a year. Now it is at $189 billion, with private investment following the government investment.

In half of the U.S. states, job creation is strong and unemployment is at or near 50-year lows, while lowering inflation rates has helped U.S. consumer confidence to rise to its highest level in two years (an important marker because consumer spending makes up about 70% of U.S. economic activity).

Today, the Teamsters union announced it has reached an agreement with United Parcel Service to avoid a major strike of as many as 340,000 workers. The tentative five-year agreement increases wages, including those for part-time employees, which was a sticking point in negotiations. Teamsters members still need to approve this deal, but Biden applauded the two sides for reaching an agreement by negotiating in good faith.

The agreement, Biden said, is “a testament to the power of employers and employees coming together to work out their differences at the bargaining table in a manner that helps businesses succeed while helping workers secure pay and benefits they can raise a family on and retire with dignity and respect.”

At the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan organization devoted to building a more dynamic U.S. economy, Daniel Newman reported yesterday that “[i]ndividuals filed nearly 2.7 million applications to start a business between January and June of this year, a 5 percent increase over 2022 and a staggering 52 percent increase over the same period in 2019.” He noted that “[t]he durability and growth of the startup surge is quite striking” and that nearly every major industry sector is participating in it.

Historically, Newman notes, “there is a tight correlation between the number of applications and true business formation.” “The sustained boost to entrepreneurship observed across much of the country since 2020 should produce a sense of optimism for a healthier, more dynamic economy in the coming years.”

Biden has always emphasized the importance of a healthy economy that gives workers breathing room and the ability to live with dignity.

Heather C. Richardson

@phranny said
Heather C. Richardson

@phranny said
President Biden’s determination to “build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” appears to be paying off. Last Friday the global financial services company Morgan Stanley credited Biden’s policies with driving a boom in large-scale infrastructure and manufacturing, a boom large enough that Morgan Stanley revised its gross domestic product growth projections upwa ...[text shortened]... my that gives workers breathing room and the ability to live with dignity.

Heather C. Richardson

@Mott-The-Hoople, it is people like you who depend on anecdotal comments, your own personal situation or fake news sources to judge the current economic situation. I would rather rely on real data from reliable sources.

@Mott-The-Hoople
And the FACT Jack that the inflation rate is lower than any of the G7 countries matters not a whit to you or your Make America Grate Again BS.
You are one sick puppy. You NEVER think for yourself, put a pennies worth of effort to find out what is really going on BECAUSE you THINK you already know what is going on and for you that is whatever your god king Trump says.
You have ZERO doubt that Trump would EVER do anything illegal and all the evidence is totally fake, made up BS and your god king Trump is A, REALLY above the law, and B, TOTALLY innocent of ANY charges brought forth, backed up by scores of witnesses who, for you, are ALL Lying since Trump was the greatest POTUS in US history.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/27/economy/inflation-biden-economy/index.html

But OF COURSE all that is totally faked for you, which is YOUR problem not ours since we know what is going on, not some fantasy world where your god king is innocent of all charges AND the courts are ALL corrupt.

@phranny said
@Mott-The-Hoople, it is people like you who depend on anecdotal comments, your own personal situation or fake news sources to judge the current economic situation. I would rather rely on real data from reliable sources.

@Mott-The-Hoople
Of course, if your god king Trump had been POTUS throughout the last few years, inflation? No big deal, we will deal with it.
But because a cursed democrat is now POTUS, it wouldn't matter if inflation went to ZERO, you would still bitch that EVERYTHING going on is Biden's fault, ignoring the FACT JACK that COVID 19 ruined a lot of things in the US AND around the planet, a MILLION dead Americans means NOTHING to a cretin like you.

@vivify said
Heather Cox Richardson 🙂

@mott-the-hoople said
read this post, then step out into the real world.

you libs are very gullible

@mott-the-hoople said
I can see when I go out and everything I touch cast MORE.

But gullible fools believe it when they TELL you how good things are.

I dont know about you but I live in the real world

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/brady-biden-flation-eats-away-an-entire-month-of-americans-paychecks-and-its-not-going-away/

@Phranny

Ahhhh.

A day without a Phranny wall-of-text is a day without sunshine. Hi Phranny!

@suzianne said
No, you don't.

You live in a world where the president has influence over the economy.

That's not the real world, where the economy is driven mainly by the greed of corporations.

@averagejoe1 said
This week you bought more than one item made by a corporation. Like, that huge cheese triple burger at the Pancake House on thursday, just before a life-saving battery for your burner phone.
Hypocrisy is the best def of the Forum, if a martian lands and asks you what it is.

@zahlanzi said
"We should improve society somewhat"
"Interesting, yet you participate in society, you hypocrite, checkmate hippie"

More good news today for Bidenomics, as the gross domestic product report for the second quarter showed annualized growth of 2.4%, higher than projected, and inflation rose at a slower pace of 2.6%, down from last quarter and well below projections. Economic analyst Steven Rattner noted that as of the second quarter, “the US economy is over 6% larger than it was before COVID (after adjusting for inflation). At this point in the recovery from the Great Recession, 2011, the economy was just 0.7% larger than it had been in 2007.”

Both consumer spending and business investment, which is up 7.7% in real annualized terms, drove this growth. Business spending makes up a much smaller share of gross domestic product, but it drives future jobs and growth, and much of this growth is in manufacturing facilities. In keeping with that trend, the nation’s largest solar panel manufacturer, First Solar, announced today that it will build a fifth factory in the U.S. as alternative energy technology takes off. This commitment brings to more than $2.8 billion the amount First Solar has invested in the U.S. to ramp up production.

While so-called Bidenomics is designed to rebuild the middle class, the administration is also trying to reestablish fair ground rules for corporate behavior. Yesterday, the Departments of Justice, Commerce, and Treasury invited American businesses to come forward voluntarily if they think they might have violated U.S. sanctions, export controls, or other national security laws by sharing sensitive technology or helping sanctioned individuals launder money. Coming forward “can provide significant mitigation of civil or criminal liability,” the note says.

It highlighted the anti–money laundering and sanctions whistleblower program in the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN.
Heather C. Richardson