Pundit predictions flop as the Trump economy soars

By: John Aidan

They can’t play it down — Trump critics from economist Paul Krugman to filmmaker Michael Moore took it on the chin last week, as stocks and the US economy showed continued growth.

The Hollywood muckraker Moore even went radio silent when contacted by The Post for comment, while the latest data revealed an expanding economy firing on all cylinders — wages rising and unemployment claims at a 50-year low. On Tuesday, the Dow skyrocketed 150 points, catapulting the index to 26,634.96.

On Friday the gross domestic product showed a 3.2 percent annual growth rate for the first quarter of 2019.

“Paul Krugman, of the Fake News New York Times, has lost all credibility, as has the Times itself, with his false and highly inaccurate writings on me,” Trump tweeted last week, in a swipe at the Nobel laureate and columnist. “He is obsessed with hatred, just as others are obsessed with how stupid he is. He said Market would crash, Only Record Highs!”

Since Trump’s election as president in November 2016, Krugman has been a persistent scoffer, predicting early on that a Trump presidency would probably plunge the globe into recession.

And while Krugman reminded The Post that he “retracted that recession call three days later,” he has remained a relentless Trump attack dog. His ire is now focused on the Russian collusion.

“A hostile foreign power intervened in the presidential election, hoping to install Donald Trump in the White House,” he wrote.

Moore had no comment last week when asked about his August 2017 outburst, when he warned investors “not to invest in the stock market, not now. Way too dangerous.”
Krugman and Moore are not alone.

Bryan Riley, director of the National Taxpayers Union’s Free Trade Initiative, in a blistering letter signed by over 1,000 economists — 14 of them Nobel winners — last year warned that Trump, and his nemesis Bernie Sanders, had dangerously raised the heat against free trade ahead of the last election.

“We were very concerned about some of the trade policies. … Hopefully, some good news comes out that allows us to not impose tariffs,” Riley now says.

And the there is then-HSBC chief US economist, Kevin Logan, wrote in a client note in November 2016 that Trump’s economic policies “would likely put the economy into a recession after a year or two.”

Another economist seemed to change his tune.

“Deregulation, tax reform and the budget deals have propelled the economy forward since 2017,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum. “If headwinds from trade wars and government shutdowns are put in the rearview mirror, the economy can continue to grow robustly.”