The auto industry is facing a slowdown. Carrier will be laying off workers after all. There are predictions of a recession that could come as early as this year. This is not the economy that President Donald Trump has been promising, or even touting.
Although the rate of hiring is still healthy, other important economic indicators like auto sales, consumer spending and construction are starting to lag, according to a report by The New York Times. Wall Street experts don't anticipate economic expansion exceeding 2 percent this year, which is roughly average for the post-recovery economy — meaning an even more anemic economy than the already slow one we've been seeing for the past decade.
The economic expansion is also half of the 4 percent growth that Trump predicted would occur if he became president. As Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco, told the Times, "I don’t see any reason we will veer from a 2 percent growth rate. The safe bet is to expect more of the same. Unless we do things to boost productivity, this is the economy we are going to see."
Anderson also faulted policymakers in Washington for not doing more to address issues like the aging workforce and the fact that it's growing slowly, as well as failing to seize the moment when it came to infrastructure spending.
"We had an opportunity to do some real heavy lifting on the infrastructure issue when interest rates were very low," Anderson said.
This hasn't stopped Trump from touting the current economy as a credit to his administration, such as he did while stopping in Warsaw on Wednesday, in a very Trumpian way.
"Personally I've picked up nothing," Trump said, before adding "that's all right. Everyone else is getting very rich. That's ok, I'm very happy."
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