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A booming economy with low inflation and low unemployment?

akhilcacharya 8y ago
It was booming in 2016 too.
jkestner 8y ago
The rewards of which largely go to executives and shareholders, not rank-and-file employees? Sure, sounds like a business.
- briandear 8y ago
  Who are “shareholders?” Pretty much anyone with a retirement plan or a pension. The majority of Americans own stock.
  - jkestner 8y ago
    Not quite. 54% of the 135M American workers have a retirement plan.[1] That's 73M out of the ~250M American adults. Maybe you can call that the middle class. But point taken. To be less pithy, these individual shareholders have little power to sway governance, particularly if their stock is held in a managed fund. The rich, connected shareholders steer things, and it's not always in the interests of the company in the long term. 1. http://www.pensionrights.org/publications/statistic/how-many-american-workers-participate-workplace-retirement-plans http://www.pensionrights.org/publications/statistic/how-many...
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    The vast majority of Americans derive the lion’s share of their income over most of their lifetime from selling their labor, not from capital returns, whether from stock alone or any other combination of capital.
mirimir 8y ago
That is such a joke. What does "booming economy" really mean? Mostly the stock market, I think. And "low unemployment"? It's low because people who have given up looking aren't counted. And because it includes lots of short-term and poorly compensated jobs.
jrs235 8y ago
"low inflation" ... not if you include assets (stocks, houses, education, health[care], etc.) that are not included in the "official" inflation calculations.
dmode 8y ago
Unemployment, economy, stock market, GDP - all have been on the exact same trajectory post the 2009 recession. We would have been exactly here even if a tree was the President. The only thing that got worse economically was the Federal deficit, which is a trillion dollars now.
noelsusman 8y ago
That's more thanks to the Fed than anything else, though their role is also pretty small. The truth is the president doesn't have the ability to affect the economy very much one way or the other.

It was booming in 2016 too.

The rewards of which largely go to executives and shareholders, not rank-and-file employees? Sure, sounds like a business.

briandear 8y ago
Who are “shareholders?” Pretty much anyone with a retirement plan or a pension. The majority of Americans own stock.
- jkestner 8y ago
  Not quite. 54% of the 135M American workers have a retirement plan.[1] That's 73M out of the ~250M American adults. Maybe you can call that the middle class. But point taken. To be less pithy, these individual shareholders have little power to sway governance, particularly if their stock is held in a managed fund. The rich, connected shareholders steer things, and it's not always in the interests of the company in the long term. 1. http://www.pensionrights.org/publications/statistic/how-many-american-workers-participate-workplace-retirement-plans http://www.pensionrights.org/publications/statistic/how-many...
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  The vast majority of Americans derive the lion’s share of their income over most of their lifetime from selling their labor, not from capital returns, whether from stock alone or any other combination of capital.

mirimir 8y ago

That is such a joke. What does "booming economy" really mean? Mostly the stock market, I think. And "low unemployment"? It's low because people who have given up looking aren't counted. And because it includes lots of short-term and poorly compensated jobs.

jrs235 8y ago

"low inflation" ... not if you include assets (stocks, houses, education, health[care], etc.) that are not included in the "official" inflation calculations.

dmode 8y ago

Unemployment, economy, stock market, GDP - all have been on the exact same trajectory post the 2009 recession. We would have been exactly here even if a tree was the President. The only thing that got worse economically was the Federal deficit, which is a trillion dollars now.

noelsusman 8y ago

That's more thanks to the Fed than anything else, though their role is also pretty small. The truth is the president doesn't have the ability to affect the economy very much one way or the other.