On Fri, President #Biden hailed fresh government data showing that annual #inflation over the second half of 2023 fell back to the #FederalReserve’s 2% target. Coupled w/Thursday’s news that the #economy grew by 3.1% over the past 12 months, the #Commerce Dept report showed that the #UnitedStates appears to have achieved an #economic soft landing.

“The U.S. has really come out of this into a place of strength & is moving forward like covid never happened,” said Claudia Sahm, a fmr #FederalReserve #economist who now runs an eponymous consulting firm. “We earned this; it wasn’t just a fluke.”

Since 2020, the #UnitedStates has powered through a once-in-a-century pandemic, the highest #inflation in 40 years & fallout from 2 foreign wars. Now, after posting faster annual #growth last year than in 2022, the U.S. #economy is quashing fears of a new #recession while offering lessons for future crisis-fighting.

“The 2018 to 2019 #trade #war was immensely damaging, & this would go so far beyond that it’s hard to even compare to that,” said Erica York, senior #economist at the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank that opposes the tariffs. “This threatens to upend & fragment #global trade to an extent we haven’t seen in centuries.”