You can’t blame the Donald entirely for thinking that the US economy is in a real “good place”, as Pusillanimous Powell put it the other day.
After all, he’s in good company with the data cherry-pickers of Wall Street and its fawning financial press. The latter are nearly incorrigible when it comes to spinning the incoming data in a manner that militates toward hitting the “buy” key.
For instance, today’s Wall Street Journal reiterated the line that things really perked up in June:
Strong retail sales in June coupled with an increase in manufacturing output, set the stage for a stronger-than-expected reading for economic growth in the second quarter.
Well, if you consider 1.6% real GDP growth “strong”, which is the Atlanta Fed’s current projection (July 17) after the above June reports, perhaps. Admittedly, this latest projection (with nearly all the Q2 data in) is actually a tad stronger than its previously projected 1.4% growth for the quarter.