Chart of the Day: GDP Grew 2.6% in the Final Quarter of 2017

GDP growth figures are out today, and the economy kept up its good performance in the fourth quarter. GDP growth since the previous quarter was up 2.6 percent on an annualized basis:

And since 2017 is now in the history books, we also have growth figures for the whole year. The economy grew 2.3 percent in 2017:

This is perfectly respectable. However, just to state the obvious, it’s a long way from the sustained 3 percent growth that Donald Trump thinks his tax cut will generate. I doubt that he’ll come close to that in 2018, let alone for several years in a row.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

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