Trump’s economy isn’t much to brag about

President Donald Trump has widely and loudly boasted of an economic revival of epic and historic proportions. Make no mistake, the economy today is strong and growing, but it’s far from being historic. Let’s consider the facts. There are three key metrics that indicate the strength of the economy: gross domestic product, jobs and wages. In the second quarter of this year, the GDP grew 4.1 percent, but during President Barack Obama’s tenure it grew more than 4 percent on four separate quarters. In the first 18 months of Trump’s term, job growth averaged a healthy 193,000 per month, but during Obama’s last 18 months job growth equaled an even more robust 206,000.

Over the most recent 12 months of Trump’s presidency, average hourly wages grew 2.5 percent, but under Obama in his last year, hourly wages grew 2.9 percent.

No matter how you cut it, Trump’s economic performance, while laudable, is clearly far less than his hyperbolic rhetoric would have us believe.

Trump’s desperate to try to prevent a Democrat takeover of Congress in the November elections. He’s reaching for every point of distinction he can find. He will not find much to crow about. Ken Derow Swarthmore, Pa.

Unemployment may be low, but so are salaries (compared with cost of living). An economy can’t just be enriching for a few. “Trickle-down opression” drives this economy — a modern enslavement of the people through sustained, stifling and suffocating debt. In America, the pervasive necessities of accumulating individual and household debt are our financial chains and shackles. The less fortunate are tethered for life to financial institutions. Surviving requires taking out loans at gouging interest rates and repaying over endless months for our home, vehicle, education and life’s essentials. John O’Malley Hoover, Ala.