The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently increased its estimates for U.S economic growth.Too bad it didn’t heighten network interest in the U.S. economy.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and CBS Evening News said nothing about the revised forecast on March 13 or March 14.
The only economic stories (to use the term loosely) on the broadcasts those nights had nothing to do with economic growth. They noted the appointment of CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow to the National Economic Council and NBC jabbed at President Donald Trump for “touting economic growth and job security” as his administration churned staff. Multiple shows announced the closing of toy retailer Toys ‘R’ Us and the potential 33,000 lost jobs.
Bloomberg News actually reported the update March 13, but spun it negatively by focusing on the “major trade war caveat” in the OECD forecast.
“OECD Adds Major Trade War Caveat to Optimistic Global Outlook,” the Bloomberg headline warned. But the article by Gregory Viscusi included good news. He said the Paris-based OECD anticipated global economic growth of 4 percent (unless trade wars interfere) and noted that they partially credited the tax cuts with the increased forecast of 2.9 percent U.S. growth.
“It said that the tax cuts in the U.S. will boost business investment and could add as much as 0.75 percentage point to growth this year and next in the world’s largest economy,” Viscusi wrote. “The outlook for 2018 U.S. expansion was upgraded to 2.9 percent from 2.5 percent, and the euro area was lifted to 2.3 percent from 2.1 percent. The better global growth will be accompanied by a ‘modest’ pickup in inflation, it said.”
