News that will end up buried deep in your newspaper and given 10 seconds (maybe!) on cable and the evening news:
U.S. economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as businesses replenished depleted inventories to meet strong demand for goods, helping the nation to post its best performance in nearly four decades in 2021.
Gross domestic product increased at a 6.9% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its advance GDP estimate on Thursday. That followed a 2.3% growth pace in the third quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP growth rising at a 5.5% rate. Estimates ranged from as low as a 3.4% rate to as high as a 7.0% pace.
The economy grew 5.7% in 2021, the strongest since 1984. It contracted 3.4% in 2020, the biggest drop in 74 years. (our emphasis)
It would be political malpractice for Democrats to not hammer this into the public's consciousness all day, every day on every available platform. It should be the first talking point every time a Democratic politician opens his or her mouth in front of a camera or mic. With Republicans and the news media doing their best to focus on crises!! like the (diminishing) supply chain issues and demand- led inflation (expected to decline to 2.6% by the end of the year), Democrats have to be their own cheerleaders on the economy to change the public's perception that it's being "mishandled."
It's been the recent fate of Democrats to have to clean up the economic messes left by preceding Republican administrations. But we've done damn well at it! We can't let false impressions of how the economy is recovering be the narrative for the next year, much less thereafter, lest we get another wannabe autocratic, trickle- down, plutocrat- led Republican administration in 2024.
(Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)
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