How Trump Can Leverage an Economy Americans Dislike
The president-elect is promising bold action when limiting uncertainty in an already solid and improving economy would be the best course.
Convincing Americans he is taking drastic action on the economy while sitting back would be Trump's best move.
Photographer: Sarah Rice/Bloomberg
President-elect Donald Trump has spent the past few months portraying the US economy as an epic disaster in need of radical action. That turns out to have been good politics. Unfortunately, it also means he’s made a bunch of bold promises to fix the economy when not meddling with a good thing is probably the best course.
Far from being a disaster, the US economy is currently the envy of the world. Unemployment is low, inflation is falling, real wages are up and productivity is high and rising. That most American voters aren’t impressed can be chalked up to lingering effects of the inflation wave of 2021-2022, a frozen housing market, a recent slowdown in hiring, partisan polarization and a lamentable lack of familiarity with comparative international economic statistics. The memory of that inflation wave will fade — Trump won’t be blamed for it in any case — and Federal Reserve rate cuts should over time help get home sales and hiring back on track. The simple passage of time will work wonders.