Today’s GDP report got me curious about something: how does private sector GDP compare to total GDP? That is, if you pull out government contributions to GDP growth, what does purely private-sector growth look like? Here it is:
Private sector growth has been declining since the start of the expansion, and that decline has picked up speed over the past two years. It’s no wonder President Trump was so eager to agree to sizeable increases in the federal budget this week. He knows perfectly well that his tax cut has worn off and he needs all the help he can get from government spending to prop up an increasingly anemic private sector. For the next year, anyway.
