ECONOMY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “When President Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday [2-4-19], he can quite justifiably say that the state of the economy is good. Unemployment is low, inflation is muted and growth has continued unabated for nearly 10 years. As a college professor, I’m often drawn to giving letter grades, and would give the United States economy an A-, with the potential for a better grade if the economic gains had been distributed more evenly. But Mr. Trump controls economic policy, not the economy, and so a fairer report card would also assess his actual policies. To provide a nonpartisan appraisal, I’ve reviewed surveys of about 50 leading economists — liberals and conservatives — run by the University of Chicago. What is startling is that the economists are nearly unanimous in concluding that Mr. Trump’s policies are destructive. That is why many economists are uneasy about his presidency, even though the economy earns solid grades.”
–Justin Wolfers, “An A- for the U.S. Economy, but Failing Grades for Trump’s Policies,” The New York Times online, February 4, 2019