FILE – In this Monday, Jan. 22, 2018 file photo, a for sale sign is displayed in front of a home in Mount Lebanon, Pa. Economists are generally bullish in their outlooks for 2018: Most expect the new U.S. tax cuts, a sturdier global economy and a healthy job market to support consumer and business spending and a steady if modest pace of hiring. And many Americans appear confident enough to buy homes: Sales of existing houses reached their highest level in 11 years in 2017. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)WASHINGTON – A wave of fear about inflation and higher interest rates has sent stock prices tumbling and raised concerns about corporate profits. On Monday, a plunge of over 1,100 points in the Dow Jones industrial average capped two days of losses that have erased the stock market’s gains for the year.
Yet the rush of anxiety has obscured a fundamental fact about the U.S. economy: It’s healthy.
Nearly nine years into the expansion that followed the Great Recession, the job market is strong. So is housing. Consumer confidence is solid, and manufacturing is rebounding. Households and businesses are spending freely. Personal debt has lightened since the financial crisis a decade ago. And major economies around the world are growing in tandem.
After Monday’s stock market swoon, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the spokeswoman for President Donald Trump, who has frequently boasted about the stock market’s gains under his watch, said in a statement:
“The president’s focus is on our long-term economic fundamentals, which remain exceptionally strong, with strengthening U.S. economic growth, historically low unemployment and increasing wages for American workers.”