Economy on the brink

Good news: The Electoral College has done its job and the voting is over. Bad news: We’ll do it all again in the next four years. Good news: Hillary Clinton lost. Bad news: Donald Trump won.

Worse news: Trump is inheriting an economy that will probably suffer the Greater Recession in the next four years. The present recovery from the last recession seems weak because it is not a real recovery. The government under-reports inflation to make the GDP appear higher than it really is. Unemployment reports don’t include many of the unemployed. The more informative Labor Force Participation Rate is ignored because it is the lowest in decades.

Job creation numbers are announced with much fanfare only to be corrected downward a month later. Little is said of the new jobs being minimum wage part time. Many of the employed celebrated by the administration are working two, or even three Obama-jobs and earning less than they were a decade ago. Had any other candidate been elected, the situation would be the same. We can only hope Trump does not make things worse with bailouts and quantitative easing.

Someone explain the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to Trump before it’s too late.

David Wordinger

Medical Lake