I heard someone on MSNBC today reference the "hot economy"

[Tom Rinaldo]

It was in the context of how counterproductive it was for Trump to be burying taking credit for a great economy underneath all of his racist immigration fear mongering. Every time the media uses that now tired meme they are carrying water for the Republicans, stressing their talking point for them when they can't make it themselves.

But it is worse than that. This is not "a hot economy." We have a halfway decent economy, almost exclusively due to Obama's rescuing the U.S. from the Great Recession, that is on a unsustainable tax cut for corporations and the rich, crack cocaine high. Unemployment figures may be low but that is irrelevant when tens of millions of American households are still struggling to get by, living from pay check to pay check and unable to save money for even a the slightest emergency.

Overwhelmingly corporations did not pass tax cut savings on to their workers, and even the one time bonuses some of them did give out are long gone while the tax breaks they still enjoy stretch on unabated. CEO pay still is going through the roof while average earnings still are virtually stagnant. Stock prices surged initially, in part from all the money companies poured into stock buyback, but very recent losses have left the DOW flat for all of 2018. Meanwhile the federal deficit is rising faster than a storm surge, looming large in all of our futures.

Meanwhile no one is asking, "If this is a hot economy, what will the next cold economy look like?" Everyone knows it is coming, most likely sooner rather than later. Economic expansions do not continue indefinably, and ours is already overdue for a significant "correction". It is criminally complicit for the media to buy into glowing Republican claims of a "hot economy". Not for most Americans it isn't, and distant storm clouds are already gathering

[peekaloo]

1. Set your alarms for tax filing season.

First of many wake up calls.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Ah yes, the changed withholding exemption allowance formular, among other things

coupled with the loss of certain tax deductions, will leave many people owing taxes rather than getting the refund they expected. All conveniently after election day.

[ck4829]

3. Hot as in ebola? As in radioactive?

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. yeah, like that. Except I doubt that's what they meant n/t

[Eyeball_Kid]

5. The "hot economy" meme doesn't resonate because

on the ground, there isn't any noticeable difference between now and before. Jobs are mostly of the low-wage variety. Sure, employment is high, but working for pennies and no or poor insurance doesn't feel as if the future is bright. So Trumpy's going to continue to pull the wool over the eyes of his Fanboys, gushing about the economy as a selling point when the proof is NOT in the pudding. His Fanboys are responding to the rhetoric, not the facts.

[Mr. Quackers]

6. There's plenty of jobs

hell, you can get two or three of them to get the money to just barely survive.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Exaxtly

That would be the Republican's best ploy now, attempting to brag about the economy. Trump is undermining that, and pundits are commenting on that. I get it, but that doesn't justify lame commentary that doesn't include the points you make above. Most voters probably get it, and that is why the Republican tax cut ploy backfired. But historically low unemployment rates has a ring to it which is why most Republicans want that highlighted now. Gushing about about low unemployment might influence a few voters, and in a close election that could make the difference - even though people are struggling with low wage jobs that they may loose at the slightest economic slowdown. Every time I hear a supposedly progressive/liberal/Democratic commentary repeat the Republican talking point about a "hot economy" I want to reach into my screen and slap them.

[uponit7771]

8. +1, 64% of people have not seen higher wages (link)

https://democrats.org/press/trump-tax-law-has-not-benefited-workers-and-business-investment-is-slowing/

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Lord Flashheart says it best!

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.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. That's great. I could use a laugh today to break the tension n/t

[c-rational]

11. I am not hearing from anyone in my circle that this is a great economy. Quite the contrary.

My friend in Florida with a landscaping business has customers who can no longer afford to have their grass cut or are loosing health benefits. Wall street may have recovered after the 08 meltdown, but Main Street is still hurting. Unfortunately, most Americans are afraid to admit how precarious their financial straits because they have bought the myth that hard work can get you up the ladder. Not so much anymore, the game is rigged and gaslit by corporate media.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. And yet the media has bouught into this lie, repeatedly

Not only does it go unchallenged when Republicans spout their "great economy" BS, commentators are offering up this as conventional wisdom all on their own. Talk about being in "the bubble". Every time they allow this spin they are giving Republican votes. I have to think some of them are doing it intentionally under the guise of "objective reporting".

[c-rational]

13. As the writer Sinclair Lewis so eloquently stated, it is difficult for a man to admit a fact when

his job depends on him not knowing that fact. Yes the aggregate economic numbers are up and the 1% are doing very well, but this is not a healing economy for this country.

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. Yup. I'm glad you joined DU by the way. I hope to find you here often in the future. n/t

[c-rational]

15. Thank you and ditto. I enjoy and appreciate your posts. DU is becoming home and it is rare

that I don't spend some time here each day. Best news out there.