Economic Growth Hiding in Plain Sight

This week, much of the mainstream media ran with the headline that the economy contracted in the first quarter of this year. Predictably, they promptly blamed President Donald Trump.

But a quick glance under the hood shows the data points to a much stronger economy than the headlines suggest.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its estimate of economic growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) for January through March. The topline figure pointed to a contraction of 0.3 percent – a number that certainly doesn’t seem positive.

If we learned anything from economic data under former President Joe Biden, though, it’s that headlines are often deceptive. For example, Biden’s blowout government spending increased GDP figures but added nothing to the productive private sector. In other words, the numbers looked good, but Americans were growing poorer.