It's now official. The American economy has been in recession since February. Jennifer Rubin writes:
It should be noted that this happened before most business shutdowns occurred. While the pandemic indisputably plunged the economy further into recession, the Obama recovery — which President Trump conveniently ignored — ended on Trump’s watch.
To make matters worse, as with the Great Depression, the world’s economies have crashed as well. “Economic carnage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has forced the global economy into the worst recession since World War II, according to a report published Monday by the World Bank,” the Post reports. “The organization, which provides financial assistance to middle- and low-income countries, estimates that global gross domestic product will shrink 5.2 percent in 2020 as the pandemic continues to disrupt business, travel and manufacturing around the world.”
Trump broke the economy. And he doesn't know how to fix it. Others do. But they're not members of the Republican Party. And they could very well make matters worse. Trump claims that the new employment numbers show that the economy is a "rocketship." But he and his party are misreading the numbers:
Steven Rattner, former “car czar" in the Obama administration, observed Monday morning that “this is the big issue.” Declining unemployment, he said, is the result of the huge amount of liquidity the Federal Reserve added to the economy. Congress in 2020 also acted much more quickly with much more fiscal stimulus than it did in 2008. But, Rattner warns, while Democrats want to do more, Republicans are grumbling about too much spending. He predicts that the May jobs reports will only cause Republicans to dig in.
During the 2016 election, Trump claimed that "only he" could fix the country. It should be absolutely clear by now that "only he" -- with the help of his party -- can break it -- to the point where it can't be put back together again.
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