The sudden reversal of economic confidence

The partisan divide in consumer expectations has stunned economists. Here's what you need to know.

Top Democratic congressmen Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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The latest jobs numbers are in and they're "surprisingly lackluster," said Jim Puzzanghera at the Los Angeles Times. The economy added just 98,000 new jobs in March, "a little more than half of what economists had expected." Analysts blamed severe winter weather in the Northeast for pushing job growth down to the lowest level in nearly a year. "But there also was some good news." The unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent, "its lowest level in nearly a decade," and wages continued to show solid growth. Democrats pooh-poohed the jobs numbers as "disappointing," said Danny Vinik at Politico. But it wasn't that long ago that Democrats were defending similar reports. "It's not hard to decipher" what's changed since then: "Barack Obama left the White House, and Donald Trump entered it."

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