Many academic economists must be perplexed by the last three weeks’ financial news, having confidently opined that a Trump presidency would spell economic disaster. Let’s hope that they are feeling a little embarrassed by the stock market’s surge, by sharply rising inflation expectations, and by accelerating growth forecasts. Interestingly, many voters saw what economic “experts” did not: an utter contempt for economic growth by the Obama Administration and the Clinton campaign. That contempt was visible constantly over the past eight years – in the refusal to allow the XL Pipeline, in the shutting down of the coal industry in West Virginia, in the lack of any serious prioritization of tax reform. Obama and Clinton had a tin ear for anything but the priorities of the progressive elite, and consequently focused on redistribution, battling global warming, expanding healthcare coverage on unsustainable financial footings, and punishing bank lending.
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