PRESS RELEASE

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Why China Insists a G20 Growth Commitment Is Urgent

Aug. 26, 2016 (EIRNS)—In early July, China’s Foreign Minister Lou Juwei and its trade minister characterized the condition of the world economy as "grim," and said that it was incumbent on the G20 nations, as a whole, to take coordinated action to increase investment in both new infrastructure and increased consumption, to restore growth to most of the world’s economy.

Clearly they referred, though by diplomatic inference, to the prostrate economies of Europe, and also to the U.S. economic recovery of which Barack Obama waxes so arrogantly proud.

In the years 1934-35, under the impulse of President Franklin Roosevelt’s policies of recovery from the depth of the Great Depression, the U.S. economy—as now calculated—grew by 10% each year.

In the years 2008-2016, under the impulse of President Barack Obama’s policies of recovery from the depth of the "Great Recession," the U.S. economy responded quite differently.

Here are average, annual U.S. economic growth rates over 10-year periods since World War II.

1948-57: 3.80%
1958-67: 4.28%
1968-77: 3.18%
1978-87: 3.15%
1988-97: 3.05%
1998-2007: 2.99%
2008-2016: 1.1%

The "Obama growth" since 2008 is 8.4% combined over full two terms as President, less than FDR accomplished in each of his first two years as President. (The European Union’s average annual growth rate during those years has been 0.6%.)

In the years 2008-16, under the impulse of China’s construction, high-speed rail, space exploration, New Silk Road policies (and an efficient Glass-Steagall separation of banks by law), the Chinese economy grew at an annual average rate of 8.1%.