National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow proclaims that President Donald Trump has “changed the entire psychology of this country,” sparking the best economic growth in decades.
“I have never seen a guy work his tail off the way he does. It's really quite remarkable,” the veteran financial guru and former Ronald Reagan adviser recently told Fox Business Network.
“From Ronald Reagan, I learned the mark of a great leader is optimism,” said Kudlow, who worked as Reagan’s budget deputy between 1981 and 1985.
“It’s interesting that President Trump comes into office and all these confidence index numbers start to soar. I don’t think that is a mistake,” said Kudlow, who served as the Trump campaign's senior economic adviser.
“He changed the entire psychology of this country. I think the economy is comforting, it's been an inspiration. I think President Trump's tax cuts are showing their muster,” said Kudlow, Trump's chief economic adviser.
“He's arguing that the war on business is over. The war on energy is over. The war on success is over. You will be rewarded for the extra hours worked, the extra dollar invested, the extra risk taken. He said ‘take a rip at the ball, I have got your back in our new economy,’” said Kudlow.
“The reality is we are running a steamy hot economy. I think American entrepreneurs and workers are crushing it. And we are the envy of the world right now.”
For his part, Trump has taken to Twitter to tout economic accomplishments.
“Boom: Record high business optimism, need for employees at 45-year high” Trump said in retweeting a recent news headline.
However, not everyone is optimistic about the economy's future.
Economists at the University of Michigan say in an annual forecast that effects of federal spending and tax cuts on U.S. economic growth will start to diminish in 2019 before fading out in 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Researchers at the school’s Department of Economics said Thursday they’re projecting overall economic output growth, as measured by gross domestic product, will register 2.7 percent growth in 2019. Growth is forecast at 1.9 percent in 2020.
Daniil Manaenkov, one of the economists, notes that the nation’s “budding trade war with China makes it hard to interpret the economy’s recent performance.”
The forecast, produced by the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, says the annual unemployment rate will drift down from an average of 3.9 percent this year to 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.4 percent in 2020.
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