US leads the world in economic growth

Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. economy is revving up just as Europe and other major economies lose steam, jeopardizing a rare period in which the world’s largest economies have been accelerating in unison.

The European Central Bank on Thursday took another step toward ending the massive stimulus measures it has used in an effort to boost growth since 2015. But ECB officials also said they would hold interest rates steady through summer next year, a sign that they felt the eurozone economy remains fragile.

In an indication of growing economic vigor in the U.S., the Federal Reserve on Wednesday tapped the brakes again, raising the benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point and signaling it may quicken the pace of future rate increases because of a strengthening economy and tightening labor markets.

The economies’ diverging paths were expressed most prominently in the euro, which on Thursday suffered its worst day against the dollar in two years. The euro lost 1.88% against the U.S. currency, its biggest drop since the day after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union.

The central bank announcements over the past two days offered the latest evidence that heady growth expectations for Europe and other major economies outside the U.S. might not be achieved, defying analysts who began the year convinced that the world economy’s first synchronized expansion in years would continue.

The International Monetary Fund said in January that the world’s seven largest economies each grew more than 1.5% in 2017, and it predicted more solid growth this year. Global manufacturing was booming and the IHS Markit global purchasing managers index that month was its strongest in nearly seven years.

Many investors counted on a revitalized Europe to lead that growth in 2018. But recent labor strikes in France, political turmoil in Italy and softer economic data are causing investors to rethink that premise. Germany last week reported that factory orders dropped 2.5% in April, while eurozone growth was 0.4% in the first quarter, down from 0.7% in the final quarter of 2017. On Thursday, the ECB revised down its eurozone growth expectations for this year to 2.1%, from 2.4%.
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The U.S. economy grew modestly over the winter—at a 2.2% annual rate in January through March—but seems to be ramping up further this spring. Growth is on track to exceed a 4% pace in the three months ending in June, which would be the fastest of any quarter in almost four years.

Spending at U.S. retailers soared 0.8% in May, the biggest jump in six months, according to U.S. government data released on Thursday. Consumers, spurred by tax cuts and the lowest unemployment in half a century, shelled out more for cars, clothing, building supplies, health products and bar tabs.

“We may be entering a new level of consumer spending right now,” said economist Robert Frick of the Navy Federal Credit Union. He pointed out that more and more blue-collar workers are finding work as the labor expansion endures, and those workers tend to spend a greater portion of their incomes, out of necessity, than higher-income workers, who save more.
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There is more.

President Trump's policies have accelerated the economy from the anemic growth of the Obama years which throttled back the economy with over-regulation and attempts to push inefficient alternative energy projects and hamper production of fossil fuels. 

Obama was wrong about many things but he was spectacularly wrong in opposing increased drilling for oil and gas.  His oppressive regulatory burden was compounded by his policies that increased government dependency because of his beliefs that manufacturing jobs would never be coming back.