Trumpian Misconceptions About the Economy and the Climate

I�ve been snowed in for the past three days and because I can�t go anywhere, I�ve had a lot of time to follow the news, digest information, and think. There�s a lot going on in the news right now, but in my hourly news sweeps this week I came across two misconceptions in both the articles that I�ve read and the comments under those articles. I usually would not care about the many false, sometimes vulgar, claims in any comment section considering that many residents in the comments do not have the highest IQ. But when our President and some news anchors push these misconceptions, it gets my attention.

Misconception #1: President Trump is the reason that the economy is so good right now.

          This is a trap that is easy for anybody to fall into. Since Trump took office there seems to be new records on the stock market everyday and unemployment continues to fall (4.1% in December. Down from 4.6% in January 2017). 2.7 million jobs were added in 2017. Wages also increased 2.5% from January 2017. It seems like Trump is doing a great job.

            However, the President has a very small effect on the economy. That is true for any president, including Trump. Presidents who had strong economies during their presidency simply were sworn in at the right time during the business cycle. Presidents can influence policy and the budget and can negotiate trade deals, but most of the economy is out of their reach. It�s like a pinball machine. The President can shoot the ball into the machine, but businesses and banks control the levers and knobs and ultimately control how many points are scored before the ball falls in the hole.  

            President Obama came into office at a time where the economy was in a recession and for the first couple of years of his presidency, the economy continued to shrink before it hit rock bottom in 2010 and then began to slowly bounce back. If he came into office in 2010, he would have had much higher economic success because he would have a growing economy throughout his entire presidency, not just in the second half.

            President Trump�s economic success is based off momentum. This momentum is an effect of the bouncing back of the economy and the business cycle following a recession. Trump is simply riding the wave. Eventually that wave will crash, and it won�t be entirely his fault when it happens. He will be blamed for it though like so many presidents before him.

Misconception #2: The cold weather and record snowfall is evidence that climate change is not real.

Unfortunately, the ignorant notion that cold weather means that global warming is a hoax is

still a belief held by many climate change deniers. This includes the President who tweeted, �We could use some good old Global Warming,� in response to the freezing temperatures during New Year�s Eve.

That�s not how it works. As the Earth�s temperature rises, polar ice caps begin to melt which puts more water in the oceans and the atmosphere. This puts more moisture in the air and makes every type of weather event more extreme. The �bomb cyclone� winter storm that snowed me in this week is an effect of climate change. The jet stream that is causing the extreme cold temperatures this far south has been expanding and its wavelength has increased which causes colder temperatures this far south. Scientists do not know what has caused the jet stream to have these larger troughs and crests yet. The large amount of snowfall is traceable to the amount of moisture in the low moving up the east coast.

            Those are the two major misconceptions that I have noticed this week. I�m confident that I will stop seeing comments under Fox News�s Facebook page that climate change is a hoax and that Trump is making the economy great now. That�s all for tonight.