Look Past the Jobs Numbers: Three Ways Trump Is Strangling the Economy

Mr. Durlauf is the director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago.

The solid employment data this week — 57,000 jobs added in June — tells us that the economy is not close to a recession and consumer confidence is rising, making inflation the main worry. But the good job news is deceiving. Our nation’s future economic performance is determined by three interconnected factors: the capital employed in production, the quality and efficient use of our work force, and the science and technology that determine what capital and labor can achieve. The Trump administration is undermining our economy on all three.

Start with the ballooning federal budget deficits and national debt, a product of tax cuts combined with large spending increases in areas such as defense — and that was happening even........

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