Looking Back at the Good Old Days of Growth Under Biden
The 2.8% increase in real GDP was the best since the Clinton years and certainly looks better than current prospects under Trump.
Biden’s margin over the previous three presidents is so big that future revisions are unlikely to change his standing.
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg
The US economy did not quite manage 3% annual economic growth during Joe Biden’s four years as president. Real (that is, inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product grew an annualized 2.8% from his first to last quarter in office, according to data released last week by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the average of real GDP and real gross domestic income — which some economists believe does a better job of capturing the timing of economic fluctuations — grew 2.7%.
Still, this was easily the best performance since Bill Clinton’s presidency, and Biden’s margin over the previous three presidents is so big that future GDP and GDI revisions (of which there will be many) are unlikely to change that.