[Ay-Pee] President Donald Trump relentlessly congratulates himself for the healthy state of the U.S. economy, with its steady growth, low unemployment, busier factories and confident consumers. But in the year since Trump's inauguration, most analysts tend to agree on this: The economy remains essentially the same sturdy one he inherited from Barack Obama.
Why, even 'polls' of the 'public' agree!The U.S. public appears to have a similar view, according to a Quinnipiac University poll last week. It found that two-thirds of American voters say the economy is "excellent" or "good," the highest since the poll started asking about the economy in 2001. Yet 49 percent of respondents credited Obama for the economy's health, compared with 40 percent who credited Trump.
Other factors besides tax cuts and deregulation are playing a role. For the first time since the most recent major recession ended in 2009, the global economy is enjoying widespread growth. That kind of broad expansion helps boost spending on U.S. exports of factory goods, a boon to manufacturers, and also lifts the stock market because it increases profits for U.S. multinational corporations.
And most of the jobs that have been added this year were outside the Midwestern "Rust Belt" states that swung for Trump in the election. Instead, some of the states with the biggest gains are in the South, Southwest and Northwest. Meanwhile, Michigan's manufacturing employment was flat last year, while factory jobs rose just 0.5 percent in Ohio. Pennsylvania lost manufacturing jobs.However....
"2017 was largely an Obama economy," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said. "But going forward it will definitely be a Trump economy."