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U.S. Economy Prospers

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis has issued its analysis of the current state of the U.S. economy, measuring the Third Quarter GDP growth for 2019. The Bureau found that real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the third quarter.

The report’s date clearly refutes the almost passionate statements by opponents of the Trump Administration, who have both criticized the White House’s pro-growth policies and suggested replacing them with a variety of measures that have proven disastrous in nations such as Venezuela.

“Today’s report shows that the U.S. economy continues its steady growth in defiance of media skeptics calling for a recession,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Since President Trump took office, wages have surged, unemployment has hit record lows, and poverty has fallen for all Americans, including the country’s most vulnerable.”

In the third quarter, U.S. consumer spending grew a healthy 2.9 percent, as American consumer confidence continued to buoy our country’s economic strength. Spending on durable goods led and jumped 7.6 percent from the second quarter. Business intellectual property investment rose 6.6 percent, signaling that American business will continue to lead the world with new ideas and inventions. The 1.6 percent growth in goods exports demonstrates that President Trump’s trade policies are bringing Made in America back.

In September 2019, unemployment in the U.S. fell to 3.5 percent, hitting the lowest level in 50 years. The unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans and African Americans were also at record lows. The total numbers of employed Americans hit the highest level on record. Between 2017 and 2018, 2.3 million more Americans gained full-time, year-round employment, including 1.6 million women.

This has translated to higher incomes for average Americans. The Census Bureau reported in September that real median household income rose to more than $63,000 in 2018, the highest level in nearly two decades. Between 2017 and 2018, real median earnings of full-time, year-round workers rose 3.4% and 3.3% for men and women respectively. This good news tracks with Labor Department numbers, which marked more than a year of consecutive year-over-year hourly wage increases of 3.0 percent or higher. Before 2018, wage gains had not hit 3 percent since 2009.

The poverty rate has tumbled as well. In 2018, the poverty rate fell by 0.5 percent to the lowest level since 2001, as the growing economy lifted 1.7 million Americans out of poverty since just 2017. Disadvantaged groups such as Hispanic Americans and African Americans saw the largest poverty reductions. America’s children saw a 1.2 percentage points in poverty, while poverty for single mothers fell by 2.5 percentage points.

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According to Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics, Professional, scientific, and technical services increased 7.4 percent in the second quarter, after increasing 8.0 percent in the first quarter. Real estate and rental and leasing increased by 2.6 percent, after increasing 0.8 percent in the first quarter. Mining (a particular target of the U.S. left, who have consistently attacked the industry) increased 23.5 percent, after increasing 26.0 percent.

The White House notes that   “In its final projection before the 2016 election, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that real GDP would grow at a 2.1 percent annual rate in the first 11 quarters of a new Administration. Instead, under President Trump, real GDP as of the third quarter has grown at a strong 2.6 percent annual rate since the election. As of the third quarter, real GDP is $230 billion—or 1.2 percent—higher than CBO’s projection Furthermore, under President Obama’s expansion period, real GDP grew at only a 2.2 percent annual rate compared to the Trump Administration’s 2.6 percent rate.”

What of the future?  Much depends on the success of President Trump’s attempts to rein in China’s illegitimate trade practices, which have resulted in vast numbers of U.S. jobs lost, particularly in manufacturing, and have cost U.S. companies billions from intellectual property theft.  They have also endangered American national security, as major U.S. advances in defense have been stolen.

The National Interest outlined a variety of practices, including currency manipulation, cyber attacks, selling fentanyl, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, product-dumping and subsidizing state enterprises as Beijing practices that have caused substantial harm.

Prior presidential administrations chose largely to ignore China’s practices, and critics of the Trump Administration have emphasized the temporary pain as opposed to the eventual gain from finally confronting Beijing’s abuses.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Selling Out to China

It is going to be difficult for Washington to overcome China’s unfair trade practices, espionage, and intellectual property theft when portions of the private sector and the Democratic Party refuse to acknowledge that the problem even exists.

In a recent Democratic Presidential debate, Andrew Yang clearly represented the dilemma. Both an entrepreneur and a candidate, he soft pedaled the issue, stating “There are aspects of Chinese behavior that are deeply problematic…They have taken advantage of frameworks to their own benefit and we haven’t had some of the same benefits…But China is in the midst of a historic increase in prosperity and that is something America should not be threatened by at all.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence of Beijing’s malicious practices, key members of both the political and tech establishment have allowed the potential of personal and corporate profit to overcome their responsibility to the nation. One of the latest examples of China’s dangerous practices was recently noted by the Washington Free Beacon, which reported that China’Huawei Technologies Ltd. Provided “ secret access points” for Chinese intelligence to conduct cyberoperations through the equipment. 55 percent of of the companies devices contained at least one backdoor access.

U.S. companies continue to engage in deals which strengthen Beijing’s military capabilities. The Wall Street Journal described how Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) cut a deal with China that “transformed itself from a financially struggling company to an investor’s dream in just three years, a turnaround that began with a decision to help Chinese partners develop advanced computer-chip technology.”

The problem is that was a boon to Beijing’s military-related supercomputing industry and its bid to produce high technology that could threaten the United States.

The prospects for profit dealing with China are high for U.S. companies, and so are the costs. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission has noted “Foreign companies hoping to participate n China’s market must pay a high price for admission, transfer technology, and suffer regulations that tilt the playing field in favor of their Chinese competitors. U.S. companies, inventors, and workers have witnessed the damaging impact of China’s trade-distorting policies in curtailed exports, stolen intellectual property, and dumped products flooding the U.S. market. The U.S. goods trade deficit with China continues to climb to new heights, reaching a record $375 billion in 2017 and on track to exceed that in 2018.”

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U.S. elected officials frequently look the other way for reasons of personal profit.   Peter Schweitzer, writing in the New York Post notes that Democratic primary contender and former Vice President Joe Biden’s bizarre denial of China’s danger to the U.S. is the result of his family’s business contacts. “In 2013, then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden flew aboard Air Force Two to China. Less than two weeks later, Hunter Biden’s firm inked a $1 billion private equity deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China. The deal was later expanded to $1.5 billion. In short, the Chinese government funded a business that it co-owned along with the son of a sitting vice president. If it sounds shocking that a vice president would shape US-China policy as his son — who has scant experience in private equity — clinched a coveted billion-dollar deal with an arm of the Chinese government, that’s because it is.”

In the 1990’s, President Clinton permitted the sale to the Chinese government of a Cray “supercomputer” which allowed Beijing’s military to make extraordinary strides forward. Several years later, the Chinese Army attempted to funnel campaign contributions to Clinton’s re-election campaign through an intermediary, Johnny Chung.  As his administration drew to a close, Clinton signed legislation giving China full and permanent trading privileges in the U.S. Millions of U.S. jobs were subsequently lost.

Illustration: Pixabay