For those rooting for the U.S. economy, there’s been plenty of good news worth celebrating lately. The combination of historically low unemployment, economic growth, shrinking inflation, rising wages, and a rising stock market have given Americans renewed optimism about the health of the resilient economy.
Just as notably, the economy in the United States isn’t just strong from a historical perspective, it’s also strong by an international perspective. The Washington Post reported over the weekend on an underappreciated detail: Our economy is outpacing our peer nations abroad, which means Americans are experiencing “the world’s best recovery.”
The European economy, hobbled by unfamiliar weakness in Germany, is barely growing. China is struggling to recapture its sizzle. And Japan continues to disappoint. But in the United States, it’s a different story. Here, despite lingering consumer angst over inflation, the surprisingly strong economy is outperforming all of its major trading partners.
The Post quoted Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist, who said, “The U.S. has really come out of this into a place of strength and is moving forward like covid never happened. We earned this; it wasn’t just a fluke.”
From a purely political perspective, this creates some serious challenges for Republicans. Part of the problem, of course, is that GOP officials were hoping to capitalize on perceptions of a weak economy in this year’s elections, and reality is clearly getting in the way.
Making matters worse, the reason the U.S. economy is outpacing recoveries elsewhere is that the federal government has invested heavily in the economy in recent years — which is necessarily at odds with Republican orthodoxy that says government spending does not fuel growth.
But for Trump, the challenges are especially acute.
As regular readers might recall, ahead of Election Day 2020, the then-president repeatedly warned the public that if Joe Biden were elected, the U.S. economy would collapse. His rhetoric wasn’t based on anything real or substantive; he just hoped to scare voters into re-electing him.
It led the Republican to declare at the final debate of the 2020 cycle, “They say the stock market will rule if I’m elected. If he’s elected, the stock market will crash.” Around the same time, Trump also told supporters that Democratic policies would “unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions” and force the country “into depression.”
Everything he said and predicted was wrong — which leaves the GOP’s presumptive nominee in a bit of a bind.
On the one hand, Trump appears desperate to convince people that the healthy U.S. economy isn’t healthy at all. On Dec. 29, he published an item to his social media account assuring the public that the national economy is “TERRIBLE,” the truth notwithstanding, adding a prediction that if President Biden is re-elected, we’ll suffer a “‘CRASH’ WORSE THAN THAT OF 1929 — A GREAT DEPRESSION!!!”
The former president soon after campaigned in New Hampshire and described a dystopia that bore no resemblance to our reality. “[B]anks are collapsing,” Trump said, pointing to events that are unfolding only in his imagination. He added, “We are a nation whose economy is collapsing into a cesspool of ruin, whose supply chain is broken, whose stores are not stocked.”
None of this was even remotely true. It was also soon contradicted by Trump’s own attempts to claim credit for good economic news. CNBC reported:
Former President Donald Trump on Monday admitted that the stock market is on the rise under his successor, President Joe Biden — but Trump still tried to take credit for it. “THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET,” Trump wrote in an all-caps Truth Social post.
So let’s take stock of what the likely Republican presidential nominee wants voters to believe. First, the economy is terrible, and people should definitely blame Biden. Second, parts of the economy are great, and people should definitely credit Trump.
And third, when people see economic data that might make them feel better about the resilient U.S. economy, they should assume that the figures are “fake,” unless Trump likes the data, in which case he’ll claim credit for the good news.
The former president, impervious to shame, is pushing each of these lines simultaneously, creating an utterly incoherent message.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
