Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

President Biden handed off the best economy to an incoming president since at least the 2001 handoff from Clinton to Bush II. In his last quarter in office, GDP grew at a 2.3 percent annual rate (final demand, which excludes inventory fluctuations, grew at a 3.2 percent rate). That brought the average growth rate for Biden’s presidency to 3.2 percent, the highest since Clinton’s second term.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.0 percent in January, keeping it in the narrow band between 4.0 percent and 4.3 percent it has been in since last May. For Biden’s whole term the unemployment rate averaged 4.1 percent, the lowest since Johnson’s last term, more than half a century ago.

Inflation is still slightly above the Fed’s 2.0 percent target, but it shows no clear trend. It’s worth noting in this respect that below 2.0 percent inflation rates were largely a post-Great Recession story. Prior to the Great Recession, inflation generally ran somewhat about 2.0 percent.........

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