-
1 month ago | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
Gross domestic product is most accurate when it accounts for all of a country’s economic output, including that facilitated by government spending. GDP measures the dollar value of all the goods and services produced in a country and consumed by end users in a given period of time. Government spending funds a significant amount of the economy’s production, including national defense, infrastructure, education, health care, policing, and firefighting.
-
2 months ago | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
Government spending was not the sole cause of inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic; ending it involves more than just reducing spending. President Trump approved $3.1 trillion in COVID stimulus and President Biden approved $1.9 trillion more. Estimates vary on the contribution of this spending to inflation. MIT researchers attributed 42% of post-pandemic inflation through February 2022 to the stimulus while FRED estimated it accounted for about one-third in January 2023.
-
Dec 8, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
Nearly 70% of the $175 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion was spent in the U.S. or on U.S. forces, according to a study by the American Enterprise Institute published in May 2024. Examples include the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the Foreign Military Financing Program and the Ukraine Security Assistant Initiative. The PDA arms Ukraine and pays U.S. companies for replenishing that armament.
-
Nov 23, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
Both Democrats and Republicans express higher confidence in the economy when the sitting president belongs to their party and lower confidence when the president belongs to the other party. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index most recently documented this phenomenon in the transition between presidents Trump and Biden.
-
Nov 14, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
The 2018-19 tariffs increased prices for both imported and domestically produced goods. The tariffs required U.S. companies to pay an additional fee to import many foreign goods. Some companies passed on these fees to consumers by raising retail prices. Domestic producers responded by raising the prices of their own goods, which became artificially more competitive.
-
Oct 18, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
The tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods in 2018 had a net negative effect on manufacturing jobs as well overall U.S. employment. The Federal Reserve Board found that the tariffs caused a reduction in manufacturing employment of 1.4%. Modest gains (0.3%) achieved by shielding domestic producers from foreign competition were “more than offset” by rising production costs for manufacturers who used steel as an input (-1.1%) and retaliatory tariffs (-0.7%).
-
Sep 24, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
The 12-month inflation rate was 9.0% in June of 2022. This was the highest rate since November 1981. Inflation exceeded 9.0% each month between January 1974 and July 1975, and between January 1979 and November 1981. Unlike those earlier episodes, in which inflation remained elevated for nineteen months and thirty-five months, respectively, the spike in inflation in mid-2022 was reversed relatively quickly, falling to 4.9% nine months later in March 2023 and 3.1% three months later in June.
-
Sep 10, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
The relevant statistic is federal debt held by the public as a percent of GDP; debt held by the public because other debt is what one government agency owes another, and percent of GDP because that captures the economy’s capacity. Between the 2020 Quarter 1 and 2024 Quarter 2 the federal debt held by the public relative to GDP rose 17 percentage points (from 79.4 percent to 96.4 percent).
-
Aug 30, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
Digital price tags in grocery stores like Kroger would be used to more swiftly facilitate price changes for items in response to demand. While this type of “dynamic pricing” may result in higher prices for groceries that are in high demand, it would also lead to a decrease in the price of those groceries where supply is greater than demand. The static-price alternative would result in stockouts and empty shelves. Dynamic pricing is used in other industries such as hospitality and ride-sharing.
-
Aug 27, 2024 | 
econofact.org | Gabriel DeLuca Vinocur |Michael Klein |Nora Gordon |Jennifer Hunt
The Congressional Budget Office’s 2020 Long Term Budget Outlook projected that, if fiscal policies in effect in 2020, the last year of the Trump presidency, remained in place thereafter, federal debt held by the public would grow from 98% of GDP by the end of 2020 to 195% of GDP by 2050. This would be the result of ongoing projected budget deficits. One contributing factor would be an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
