https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/26/economy/us-gdp-other-countries/index.html

Why the US economy is doing so much better than the rest of the world

It happened again — the US economy defied yet another forecast in a big way.

Economists were convinced the last quarter of 2023 had to be the one where economic growth slowed significantly after the prior quarter’s gangbuster 4.9% annualized growth rate.

Shopper browse clothes at the Polaris Fashion Place mall on Black Friday in Columbus, Ohio, on November 24, 2023.
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Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, did slow last quarter to a 3.3% annualized rate. But make no mistake, as Larry David would say, that’s prettaaay, prettaaay good.

It’s remarkable given economists were expecting 1.5% annualized GDP growth last quarter. It’s even more remarkable considering a year ago they were all but certain there’d be a recession by now and the economy would grow at a meager 0.2% rate.

For all those big swings and misses, you probably have yourself to thank. That’s because consumer spending, which accounts for the biggest part of US GDP, has been relentless, even in the face of the highest interest rates in 23 years.

But what’s perhaps most remarkable about the US economic growth rate is how much it towers over similarly sized advanced economies.

For instance:

The combined GDP of the 20 countries that use the euro grew at an annualized rate of just 0.1% in the third quarter of last year
The UK is growing at a 0.2% annualized rate, according to the latest GDP estimate from November
Japan’s economy shrank by 2.1% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a year prior
So yeah, prettaaay good indeed.

In addition to all the fast food we consume, the US is a special case in another way, as well.

There’s only one industrialized country, Singapore, that spent more money as a percentage of GDP on C***d stimulus than the US from 2020 to 2021, according to research that looked at 166 countries’ economic policy responses to the p******c.

In the US, we had a whopping nearly $5 trillion that went out directly to households in the form of stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits, tax credits and more.

That, combined with the fact that there weren’t too many excuses to spend money when everything was basically closed during the p******c, meant that people had a lot more cash in the bank. When the economy reopened people were spending like there was no tomorrow.

That’s been leveling off but has hardly come to a halt due in large part to all the stimulus money still flowing through the economy, Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who previously worked at the Federal Reserve, told me.

On top of that, people aren’t getting taxed as much as they had been in prior years, as evidenced by the nation’s declining tax revenue collections, Gagnon said. That’s caused the federal government to borrow a lot more money to pay its bills.

“People are acting as if they have a lot of money to spend,” he added.

Energy prices are also playing a big role in the gap between the US and other countries’ economies.

One of the reasons inflation has been higher in Europe than in the US is because the region, including the UK, is a net importer of energy, my colleagues Alicia Wallace and Hanna Ziady previously reported. The UK and euro area economies were heavily exposed to the surge in natural gas prices that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, driving energy bills for households and businesses to record highs.

Donald Trump is weak and stupid and also has six fingers on his freakishly tiny hands
Trump is a losing loser who loses.
JEFF TIEDRICH
JAN 24
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yes, Little Donny Diaperstain got more v**es than Nikki Haley in New Hampshire last night but he also fffing lost, because he’s a loser, and losing is what losers do.

Donald Trump let a girl — a brown girl, at that — take almost half his v**es, and that could be a sign of a coming disaster for him this November.

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of course, that’s not how Trump is spinning it.

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“you know, we won New Hampshire three times now, three. we won it every time. we win the primary, we win the generals.”

yeah, no. fact check: the email lady beat Trump in New Hampshire in 2016 and Biden whipped his ass there in 2020.

but that’s Donny’s whole thing: to bluff and bluster and try to convince us he’s something he’s not.

Trump is the chicken**** coward draft dodger who pretends to have the courage to disarm a school shooter.

he’s the illiterate C-minus student who pretends to be a genius.

he’s the half-a-billion-inheriting nepo baby who pretends to be self-made.

he’s the failed casino operator and game show host who pretends to be a success.

he’s the grifter and fraud who pretends to be honest.

he’s the angry rapist who pretends to be irresistible to women.

he’s the soft, pampered weakling who pretends to be the apex of masculinity.

he’s the t*****r who pretends to be a patriot.

he’s the aging dotard, lost in an ever-thickening haze of dementia, who pretends that pointing at a drawing of a camel is proof of his mental acuity.

and he’s the two-time popular v**e loser who pretends to be a winner.

Donald Trump has one thing going for him right now: his adoring horde of deranged MAGA cultists. they will never abandon him — ever — but MAGA alone is not enough to win a national e******n. we’ve already seen proof of this in 2020.

Donny is not growing his base. in fact there are signs that he’s shedding support. an increasing number of Republican v**ers want no part of Day One Dcckdticks bullchit .

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“Donald Trump really disgraced himself.”

let's look at some numbers.

Nearly half (47%) of GOP primary v**ers said that Trump would not be fit to serve as president if he was convicted of a crime. Fully 84% of Haley v**ers said a criminal conviction would be disqualifying. And a Fox News (!) analysis of 1,800 GOP primary v**ers found that more than a third of them would never (ever) v**e for Trump.

Exit polls also reminded us that MAGA is a minority within a minority.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of New Hampshire Republican primary v**ers said they do not consider themselves part of Trump's “MAGA” movement, according to early NBC News exit poll results.

Trump is never going to lose that baseline 36% of crazies who will v**e for him no matter what. Trump’s undying MAGA support pretty much guarantees that he’ll be the Republican candidate for president — sorry, Nikki — but 36% won’t win him the general.

and of course, there’s Donald’s increasingly-befuddled incoherence, which is getting harder for the press to ignore.

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“… which is incapable of solven … even the sollest … smallest problem. the simplest of problems we can no longer solve. we can’t do anything. we are an institute in a powerful death penalty. we will put this on. we have to.”

what the fcck even is this gibberish? the family of feral raccoons that live inside Trump’s head have almost completely chewed through the wires — what’s Donny going to be like by the time November rolls around?

here’s what strong and popular looks like: Joe Biden won New Hampshire easily and his name wasn’t even on the b****t.

in your face, Donny.

now, don’t get complacent. it’s going to be one fcck of an ugly campaign season — and like the man said, it isn’t over til it’s over.

meanwhile, did you know that Donald Trump has six fingers on each of his freakishly undersized hands? here’s an AI-generated pic that Donny posted to his crappy app.


wait, what? let’s count those fingers. onetwothreefourfiveSIX.


beautiful.

AI’s inability to render hands correctly is a well-documented thing — but why did Trump have to resort to a ridiculous computer-generated image? because no actual photo exists of darling-of-the-evangelicals Donald Trump praying.

as opposed to someone else we could name.

You have the right to live YOUR life the way you want. I also have that same right. What you DON'Thave the right to do is push your lifestyle and values on me or my family. You DON'T have the right to silence MINE and demand I cave to yours. I teach my kids and grandkids to be kind to others. You teach yours to bully anyone who doesn't think like them to throw fits and demand they be silent on what they believe. NEVER will I bow down to your values. You do you,stay out of my family's business and we will get along fine.