World News

Why Won’t the President Listen to the Experts?


President Joe Biden is still claiming the economy needs another massive “rescue” bill from Washington. But even the swamp’s official forecasters are expecting a good year for economic growth in the U.S.

The Congressional Budget Office, an institution created by Congress in 1974 to enable higher spending, is not exactly a bastion of free-market economics. But there’s no denying the strength in the private economy. And so CBO has now raised its expectations. The Journal’s Kate Davidson notes:

Gross domestic product is expected to grow 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with a year earlier and to expand 2.4% in 2022. Growth will average 2.6% a year through 2025, the CBO said.

With a good policy mix the economy could advance even faster, but there’s now a clear consensus among economists that the U.S. is in growth mode. CBO opines:

Over the course of the coming year, vaccination is expected to greatly reduce the number of new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. As a result, the extent of social distancing is expected to decline. In its new economic forecast, which covers the period from 2021 to 2031, the Congressional Budget Office therefore projects that the economic expansion that began in mid-2020 will continue. Specifically, real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to return to its prepandemic level in mid-2021…

Covid hospitalizations peaked two weeks before Inauguration Day and vaccine distribution continues, despite the ministrations of some incompetent governors. If even the Beltway crowd is now officially expecting solid economic growth this year, where’s the case for a big federal intervention?

It’s even harder to find outside of Washington. “Economic activity in the manufacturing sector grew in January, with the overall economy notching an eighth consecutive month of growth,” reports the Institute for Supply Management today.



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