US strong economic growth 'continues to defy expectations' as expert credits Biden policies

America’s economy grew at a “robust” but “not too hot” rate over the last quarter, leading experts to declare it “continues to defy expectations,” as inflation subsides. Economists point to sustained levels of purchasing by American consumers, with one expert crediting President Joe Biden’s economic policies as achieving better results than most countries around the world have seen.

“The economy picked up sharply in the second quarter as a rise in consumer and business spending offset a drop in housing construction and a widening trade gap,” USA Today reports. “The nation’s gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.8% in the April-to-June period, the Commerce Department said Thursday.”

“Forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg had projected a 1.9% increase.”

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Michael Linden, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth explains: “At this point after the Great Recession [a global recession that technically ended in 2009], the economy was about 6% smaller than what had been expected. That’s millions of people out of work. That’s hundreds of billions of dollars not in pockets. It matters a lot that we are above projections!”

He adds, “the overall size of the US economy is BIGGER today than what was expected even before the pandemic struck.”

Fitch Ratings’ head of economic research Olu Sonola told ABC News, “This is a perfect report for the Fed,” referring to the Federal Reserve, which is widely expected to cut interest rates in September. “Growth during the first half of the year is not too hot, inflation continues to cool and the elusive soft landing scenario looks within reach.”

ABC News also notes that “inflation has slowed sharply, to 3% from 9.1% in 2022,” and explains: “The Fed’s rate hikes — 11 of them in 2022 and 2023 — were a response to the flare-up in inflation that began in the spring of 2021 as the economy rebounded with unexpected speed from the COVID-19 recession, causing severe supply shortages. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made things worse by inflating prices for the energy and grains the world depends on. Prices spiked across the country and the world.”

Former National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti praised the Biden-Harris administration’s polices for returning economic results that have been among the best around the world.

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“The Biden-Harris economy continues to defy expectations and lap its global competitors. And it reflects decisions the Admin[istration] made: to prioritize a quick return to a strong job market and to promote private investment in clean energy and manufacturing,” he wrote.

Ramamurti, who served as Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s senior counsel for banking and economic policy, and as her 2020 presidential campaign’s economic policy director, also issued a strong warning:

“The biggest threat to our sustained progress is the Trump economic agenda, which would reignite inflation and stifle growth — all in the service of delivering massive tax cuts to the rich and creating a de facto national sales tax via 10% across-the-board tariffs.”

Washington Post columnist and editorial board member Heather Long called it “a great GDP report,” and concluded: “The economy keeps powering on.”

See the charts above or at this link.