Pray that we would handle money with wisdom and godliness in America.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. (1 Tim 6:17)

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“Whatever happened to the New Normal? First, Obama Democrats told us that what looked like long-term stagnation under President Obama’s economic policies, with growth stuck at 2 percent on average for his whole eight years in office, was the New Normal that the American people were going to have to get used to, the best we could do now.

That was after the worst recession since the Great Depression, making 10 years of insignificant growth, even though the historical pattern is the worse the recession the stronger the recovery.

Republicans who argued that we could still do much better with 3 percent, even 4 percent growth were derided as out-of-touch, behind-the-times throwbacks.

But as soon as the economy started to peek out into the 3-4 percent range in 2017-18, we were told this was Mr. Obama’s recovery at last. As Steve Forbes suggested, this was like the fired coach of the last place team taking credit for the team’s sudden winning record under the new coach.

President Trump said the suddenly more robust economy starting on his election day was due to the economic policy changes he promised, and then implemented. That included the sharp cuts for both businesses and workers in his tax reform plan, especially slashing America’s highest in the world corporate tax rates to 21 percent, and the pass through rates on mostly smaller businesses effectively by 20 percent. . . .

The National Association for Business Economics reports more companies are now increasing wages and salaries than in the last 18 years. The Institute for Supply Management reports that U.S. manufacturing is expanding at the fastest pace in 13 years. As everyone should know by now, unemployment is the lowest in 17 years, for blacks and Hispanics the lowest ever in American history.

Are these results due to Mr. Obama’s anti-growth economic policies, or to Mr. Trump’s pro-growth changes reversing those policies? With economic growth of 4 percent, the economy doubles every 17 years, eight times after 50 years. With economic growth of 2 percent, the economy doubles every 35 years.

Mr. Obama’s permanent economic stagnation was on track over the long run to fundamentally transform America as he promised, into a Third World country, like Peru. Democrats seem to prefer that, apparently thinking they could then more easily dominate America as a one-party state.

But that deserves exactly zero credit for the economic recovery from the Great Recession, which took Mr. Trump’s historic surprise victory and fundamental policy course correction, to finally show up in 2017-18. The economy will grow 5 percent to 6 percent for a couple of years, to catch up to where it should be on the long-term GDP growth trendline.” (Excerpted from The Washington Times, commentary by Peter Ferrara.)