In business-like fashion, President Trump laid out his record of economic accomplishments, and his optimistic economic vision. He even used a set of charts to show how key metrics on prices have improved in his first year after the disastrous Biden years. I’ve been asking his team to use numbers. Reagan used numbers very well. And the numbers are on Trump’s side. So bravo.
It was a 19-minute power-packed speech. But my favorite line is this: "Our nation is strong. America is respected, and our country is back stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen." Mr. Trump added: "we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world."
I think the president should repeat that line and update this speech over and over in the months ahead. Ultimately, it will be convincing. And last night he certainly took a major first step to persuade people that there’s a Trump economic boom brewing.
Then today came the delayed consumer price index that underscored everything Mr. Trump talked about last night. Over the past three months, that’s the high frequency way to measure, the CPI is up only 2.1%. And the core, excluding food and energy, 1.6%. But this doesn’t yet reflect the plunge in oil prices from around $100 a barrel at the start of the year, to about $55 right now. Gasoline prices are falling below $3. And they’re going tp continue to fall toward $2. But the power of oil permeates throughout the whole economy, affecting hundreds of sectors. This is drill, baby, drill. And it’s going to boost growth and wages while lowering inflation and interest rates. And that in turn will not only help housing to recover, but it’ll put even more torque behind all the business investment incentives.
Mr. Trump loves new factories. He talked about it last night. Factories boost jobs, wages, and take home pay for working folks. Let’s not make this any harder than it needs to be. His program of supply side tax cuts, deregulation, drill baby drill and free and fair reciprocal trade is a winner. It reimagines and rejuvenates new capitalism as the best path to prosperity.
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