Trump's 50 Days Shows More Results Than Most 4 Year Presidents Even With Democratic Intransigence And Media's Fake News

What Trump Has Accomplished in His First 50 Days

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In his first 50 days as president, Donald Trump has accomplished more than some presidents accomplish in their entire terms in office. He’s added jobs to the economy, driven the stock market to record highs and saved taxpayers billions of dollars.

In fact, Trump has accomplished so many things that the items below are only a partial compilation. But oh, what a list! Here are some of the best of Trump’s major achievements from his first 7 weeks in office:

1. New jobs

In both January and February, U.S. companies added jobs to the economy by leaps and bounds. In January, the numbers were 238,000 jobs added, and in February the figures were 235,000, with wages growing by an average 2.8 percent and unemployment falling to 4.7 percent.

Of course, Trump has been quick to point out that the way the government calculates unemployment is currently not very accurate, and new Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been one of the first people to acknowledge this. Hopefully, a more accurate formulation will be put to use by Trump’s administration soon.

2. A Lower National Debt

An occurrence that many people didn’t expect has come to pass; Trump has succeeded in lowering the nation’s debt, instead of adding to it. The most recent figure for the debt under ex-President Obama was $19.947 trillion, but since then, Trump has subtracted $68 billion — not a bad start for a president who has vowed to cut copious government waste.

3. Manufacturing Is at Its Best Since 1984

The Philly Fed Index, which measures how well manufacturers are doing, showed its best numbers since 1984. Hopefully, Trump can top that over the course of the next several years.

4. Small Businesses and Medium-Sized Businesses Are Confident

By many accounts, the real drivers of the nation’s economy are small businesses and medium-sized businesses, which account for at least 83 percent of the nation’s employment. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index recently hit its highest levels since 2004; clearly, the nation’s business owners are optimistic about the future.

5. The Stock Market Keeps Hitting Record Highs

Since Trump was elected, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has surged more than 12 percent — greater than 2500 points — to close above 21,000 for the first time ever on March 1. It’s hard to beat a number like that as far as showing how confident businesses are.

6. Samsung Is Investing in American Production

Samsung is one of several companies (see below) that have made announcements of hiring and/or moving production to the United States from other countries. Samsung will reportedly invest $300 million in expanding its U.S. production facilities.

7. ExxonMobil Is Moving Jobs to the U.S.

ExxonMobil has announced it will build 11 new plants along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. over the next 10 years, spending more than $20 billion. More than 45,000 jobs will be created.

8. Carrier Will Keep Its Indiana Manufacturing Plant

One of the first actions that Trump was celebrated for was the saving of hundreds of jobs at air conditioner manufacturer Carrier that otherwise would have gone to Mexico. This happened even before Trump had officially started his term in office!

9. Fiat Chrysler Is Investing $1 billion in Its Factories

Fiat Chrysler will invest $1 billion in two of its factories in Detroit and Toledo, creating at least 2,000 jobs.

10. Hasbro Announced It Will Start Making Play-Doh in the U.S. Again

Toy giant Hasbro announced it will move production of children’s modeling clay Play-Doh to a Massachusetts factory from facilities in China and Turkey.

11. The Coal Industry Has Been Freed from Onerous Regulations

Ex-President Obama saddled the coal industry with regulations that were causing it to go bankrupt. Trump has rescinded many of those regulations via an executive order, helping to revitalize this proud and important American industry.

12. The Transpacific Partnership Is Dead

Trump’s first act as president was to kill the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), a so-called “free-trade” deal that would have cost the U.S. untold numbers of jobs and lowered standards for everything from food to medicines.

13. Illegal Immigration from Mexico Is Down by 40 Percent

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), border crossings from Mexico are down by 40 percent. When Trump’s anticipated southern U.S. border wall is erected, this number will likely go much higher.

14. The End of Sanctuary Cities Has Been Mandated

Trump signed an executive order withholding federal funds for municipalities that harbor criminal aliens, accelerating the end of “sanctuary cities.”

15. The Repeal and Replacement of Obamacare Has Begun

Although the replacement of Obamacare is still being intensely deliberated (and rightly so), the wheels are in motion for the repeal of one of former President Obama’s worst legacies — the overpriced, dysfunctional and enormously bureaucratic healthcare legislation formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) — a disaster from Day 1.

16. Neil Gorsuch Has Been Nominated for the Supreme Court

The president has nominated a strict Constitutionalist in Neil Gorsuch, who will add a conservative voice to the nation’s highest court to replace the sorely missed Justice Antonin Scalia.

17. The Approval of the Keystone Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline

It’s been a long time coming, but these pipelines will create American jobs and lower consumer gas prices.

18. International NGOs Sanctioning Abortions Will Lose Funding

Trump signed an executive order cutting funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that sanction and/or sponsor abortion.

19. Transgender Bathroom Policy Will Be Set By States, Not the Federal Government

Via an order to the Department of Justice, Trump has left it up to states to decide issues related to transgender bathrooms, eliminating the federal government’s role in this contentious and controversial matter.

20. American Taxpayers Will Save on the Cost of Air Force One

The planes that shuttle the president to national and international destinations will cost less, thanks to a promise Trump extracted from Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg. The amount that will be saved has not yet been finalized, but will likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

As one can see, this is quite a list. If Trump can keep up this effort, he stands a good chance of going down as one of the greatest American presidents in history. Here’s hoping he will be in office for a full eight years!

Yup, The News Media Is Crying Wolf

Is Economy Improving? Or Is It Only The Top 1%?

Consumer Spending Gets Back On Track — For Those Who Still Have Any Money

August 19, 2014 by McClatchy-Tribune 

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THINKSTOCK

BOSTON (MCT) — Written off in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the U.S. consumer is back. Not quite with a vengeance, but definitely back.

It’s noticeable to Marie Galvin, owner of GALVIN-ized in Boston, where handmade women’s hats — a discretionary purchase — sell for anywhere from $35 to $85.

“This year, since the Kentucky Derby, it all seems out of control. Everybody was shopping for good hats,” said Galvin, who wears her wares on the sales floor. “I think it’s up a good 50 percent from last year.”

Same is true for Ron Lewis, owner of Designer Cabinetry in Newton, Mass., where his customers often spend $40,000 to $80,000 for high-end kitchen cabinets and appliances.

“It’s been a slow improvement until this year, where there has been a marked improvement,” said Lewis. “The people with money have more money than ever.”

Nationally the story is largely the same, whether it’s in the finance-rich suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., the sun-kissed condos of Miami or the most populous state, California, where the jobless rate is falling. Consumption powers about two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity, and it’s noticeably back.

Spending by the rich never tailed off, and it accelerated alongside the soaring stock market gains of recent years. On the bottom economic rungs, the poor still struggle. So much so that Dollar Tree and Family Dollar recently announced plans to merge to compete against Wal-Mart for what Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine called “a more financially constrained consumer.”

But across the broad middle of the income spectrum, a bevy of indicators shows that ordinary Americans feel better about the economy and are loosening the purse strings. The most obvious example is car sales, on pace to exceed 16.3 million this year.

“It gets better all the time, but it’s not even,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with AutoTrader.com.

July retail and food sales are 3.7 percent above July 2013 levels, the Census Bureau reported earlier this month, 6.4 percent higher for autos and other motor vehicles.

Rob Gagne, a longtime resident of the blue-collar Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, feels better about the economy. The jack-of-all-trades employee of an architectural firm is prototypical middle class. But he’s splurging on a $2,100 custom-made bed, and after several years of belt tightening, he recently treated himself to a cross-country motorcycle trip.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do that. It does take some money to do that,” he said. “I probably could have, but wouldn’t have.”

Jobs are another important signpost for future consumption.

There were 4.7 million job openings in June, the highest level since February 2001, and a signal that companies are more optimistic about their future and want to hire accordingly.

At the same time, roughly 2.5 million Americans quit their jobs last month, the highest since June 2008. That’s a good thing, because it means people feel confident they can take advantage of other job opportunities.

The number of people quitting “is highly correlated with consumer confidence, which is highly correlated with consumer spending,” said Ed Yardeni, a veteran investment strategist.

Another indicator is the Consumer Confidence Index, published monthly by The Conference Board, a business research group.

The group finds that people’s confidence in their current situation is finally matching their traditional optimism about the future.

“This is the consumer saying . . . it finally has gotten better,” said Ken Goldstein, a veteran economist with the group.

The result? Goldstein said that pent-up consumer demand is about to be unleashed after several false starts.

“Finally, here it is, it’s finally happening,” Goldstein said.

–Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Washington Bureau

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(c)2014 McClatchy Washington Bureau