Last year looked like the time when President Trump had delivered on his promises to strengthen the economy. His tax cuts appeared to juice growth above 3 percent, a pace the United States had not topped since 2005. But on Thursday the Commerce Department revised 2018 growth downward to below 3 percent, even as forecasts for 2019 were also trending lower, toward 2 percent. It all has triggered another wave of disappointed commentary about doggedly “slow” growth in the United States.
But it is not just an American story, and it’s not just Mr. Trump who won’t deliver on promises of 3, 4 or even 5 percent growth. Across the world, economists have had to downgrade growth forecasts in most years since the global financial crisis of 2008. » | Ruchir Sharma | Mr. Sharma is a contributing opinion writer. | Monday, April 1, 2019
