Real gross domestic product in the United States in 2016 grew at the rate of 1.6%. From CNNMoney:
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.6% in 2016, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
In the last three months of the year — between October and December — the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.9%. It’s the slowest pace of growth since 2011.
It reflects how slow the recovery has been for many Americans since the Great Recession, which ended in 2009.
Weak economic growth was a key reason behind President Trump’s election. He promises to get growth up to 4% a year, something that hasn’t happened since the late 1990s.
Trump’s agenda to cut corporate and individual taxes, build more roads and bridges and cut away regulations have some optimistic that he can boost growth — how much, is anyone’s guess.
So, growth below 2% and decelerating. Another problem that goes unmentioned: economic growth isn’t distributed across the country or across the economy. In fact almost eight years later 90% of counties have not fully recovered from the Great Recession.
That throws a monkey wrench into all sorts of things from the actuarial soundness of public employee pension plans to cost of living increases for seniors.
We need more growth, in more parts of the country, in more sectors of the economy with the benefits going to more people. I am extremely skeptical that the approaches that President Trump apparently prefers will produce the results he thinks they will.
