that would be great. but underlying this growth pattern is slow growth in the labor force, population changes, and pretty slow productivity gains. but we are seeing improvements in wages. the latest employment cost index showed a stronger number. so, in terms of the recovery, from the crisis, things look pretty good, generally speaking. and i d have to say, if you told me three, four years ago that we d be where we are today, i would have been pretty happy to hear it. so what do you make of, then, donald trump s recipe for the situation we re in, which seems to me to be a pretty massive tax cut. there is some reform, but the largest piece of it seems to be a very large tax cut designed to stimulate the economy. how do you react to it? well, i think that, you know, it is important, as i mentioned, even though the recovery is proceeding, the underlying growth path is not very strong. productivity gains have not been very strong. and there are also other issues which would probably he
that would be great. but underlying this growth pattern is slow growth in the labor force, population changes, and pretty slow productivity gains. but we are seeing improvements in wages. the latest employment cost index showed a stronger number. so, in terms of the recovery, from the crisis, things look pretty good, generally speaking. and i d have to say, if you told me three, four years ago that we d be where we are today, i would have been pretty happy to hear it. so what do you make of, then, donald trump s recipe for the situation we re in, which seems to me to be a pretty massive tax cut. there is some reform, but the largest piece of it seems to be a very large tax cut designed to stimulate the economy. how do you react to it? well, i think that, you know, it is important, as i mentioned, even though the recovery is proceeding, the underlying growth path is not very strong. productivity gains have not been very strong.
we re down to 4.5% of unemployment. 16 million jobs created since 2009. inflation is low in stable, gas prices low, stock market s up. a lot of things are positive, growth could be faster that would be great. but underlying this growth pattern is slow growth in the economic force. we are seeing improvements in wages, the latest employment cost index showed a stronger number. so in terms of the recovery from the crises things are looked pretty good generally speaking. i d have to say that if you told me three or four years ago we d be where we are today i would have happy to hear it. you can see the entire interview tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. on fareed gp s. the investor known says hie missed out on some real opportunities. warren buffet says meeting
i think all of those things can get us from the stagnant growth we ve been seeing to a growth pattern that s realistic to get us to almost 4.5% growth. let me move on to foreign policy policy. this is an area where your skeptics say your not up to the job in terms of your knowledge, your leadership. i ll start with the question of the day that everyone is asking. that is the iraq war. if you knew what you know today, would you have gone in to iraq the way president bush did? just one thing, a qualifier. i d point out that in the overall issue of foreign policy i d say in my lifetime the most impressive president when it came to foreign policy was a governor from california. in my lifetime the worst president of foreign policy was a freshman senator from illinois. so being a senator governor isn t as important as leadership. when it comes to leadership i ll flat out tell you, i think that any president, regardless of party, would have made a similar decision to what the president di
from, i guess, funding because i believe 70% of local troops are supported by faith-based groups some of which have already expressed concern about the change in policy. how might that affect the conversation? every organization has to be sensitive to their constituencies and they also have to be sensitive to their growth pattern. the boy scouts of america has been in a serious period of decline and i think that they are rightly trying to address that. as they are able to respond in this issue and other areas, they ll be able to continue providing the virtues and benefits of scouting to a new generation but if they don t make the changes they need to scouting will continue to be irrelevant in our society. there was a scout master who spoke with the new york times that said i don t think it s fair to exclude gay adults but i have reservations about gay leaders on camping trips. just the conversations, there may be some who try to take advantage of it just to be around boys.