South Dakota tied New Hampshire in June for the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, 1.8%. Governor Kristi Noem says yay Freedom and Work Ethic, which she implies are unique to South Dakota, but SDPB notes declining unemployment rates are a nationwide trend. The tight labor market is among positive economic factors driving Goldman Sachs to lower its guess as to the probability of a recession to 20%.
GDP is surging everywhere, even in South Dakota, which reversed a yearlong local recession with 10.1% GDP growth in 2023 Quarter 1. And who built that? President Joe Biden, says Morgan Stanley:
Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is “driving a boom in large-scale infrastructure,” wrote Ellen Zentner, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, in a research note released Thursday. In addition to infrastructure, “manufacturing construction has shown broad strength,” she wrote.
As a result of these unexpected swells, Morgan Stanley now projects 1.9% GDP growth for the first half of this year. That’s nearly four times higher than the bank’s previous forecast of 0.5%.
“The economy in the first half of the year is growing much stronger than we had anticipated, putting a more comfortable cushion under our long-held soft landing view,” Zentner wrote [Christina Wilkie, “Morgan Stanley Credits Bidenomics for ‘Much Stronger’ Than Expected GDP Growth,” CNBC, 2023.07.21].
South Dakota’s participation in the GDP boom appears not to come from freedom or construction. More than nine tenths of our Q1 expansion came from agriculture (and forestry, fishing, and mining, the other parts of that Bureau of Economic Analysis category). Construction output in South Dakota actually shrank again in Q1.
South Dakota News Watch warns we may not be able to bank on big ag GDP again this year:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2023 Farm Income Forecast from February said it expects net farm income to drop nationwide by $30.5 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2023. Net farm income reflects an operation’s income after production expenses from the year have been subtracted. However, this year’s projected net cash farm income is almost $29 billion above the 2002-2021 average.
For the Northern Great Plains, the USDA forecasts a 12% drop in net cash income for farm businesses.
The predicted decrease would follow 2022’s record high forecasted net cash farm income of $195.3 billion. Crop prices surged around the country last year after Russia invaded Ukraine, one of the world’s top agricultural producers [Abbey Stegenga, “South Dakota Ag Income Predicted to Fall, But Farmers Remain Optimistic,” South Dakota News Watch, 2023.07.17].
Maybe Governor Noem needs to spend less time fighting for fireworks and country music racism and more time working to bring more infrastructure projects to South Dakota.
Related Reading: See John Tsitrian’s latest review of economic data for more evidence that President Biden is disproving the Republican gloom-bunk and helping the economy settle back into welcome healthy normalcy.
The most free state in the country would have ni such thing as a snitch hotline for university. That is so Red China. It is hilarious/ridiculous KN is worried about the indoctrination of grown-ass adults. I personally loved my indoctrination from my professors.
That’s why I say:
Bsshhh- not woke. I’m wide-a-wake. Ham n eggs. Cock-a-doodle-doo. You-you’re snooze button. You’re overslept. You’re fired on your first day. Me-I’m Freddy Kruger. You-you’re on that tranq listening to enya shartin the bed u share with yo mama
Bright-eyed n bushy-tailed n u booger-eyed n draggin butt
Go tell it to the mountainmen
Great poem, All Mammal. Love your style. :)
Maybe the MAGAnoids are coming to their senses with all this proof popping up. Even Rep. Margorie Taylor Green agrees that Joe Biden is getting stuff done as President in Biden’s new re-election ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5cAap8pol0
Lots of corn in SD and ND looks amazing. Beautiful. Great weather to grow corn so far.
@All Mammal – True that. Can’t think of one indoctrinating SD college prof that cast a spell on my brain. I did learn a lot of actual stuff from them though.
No. Biden raises our prices. Freedom in South Dakota, where we are the free-est in the world, is what make out economy the strongest.
freedom!!
Republicans are in charge of the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives controls USA spending.
Republicans raised our prices.
Colorado is the free-est state in USA.
That’s why I see so many SD license plates at the weed stores.
Inflation is higher in South Dakota because the talent flight has forced wages upward as the labor force flees for blue states.
And with the Sturgis Rally looming expect strapped merchants to jack prices into the ozone.
They come here for Freedom, Lar. grudznick shall profit and that is ok.
Inflation is also caused by opportunities.
Business rarely passes up the “opportunity” to wildly raise prices when there’s something to blame it on, other than themselves.
The chance to blame price increases on Covid was just too much to resist.
Holding business accountable and voting Democratic is the punishment business deserves for gouging.
Whining because inflation but screwing the other guy because capitalism: JFC.
We screw the other guy and pass the savings on to you. Wouldn’t that be a better motto than “Meth…?”
All of you libbie fellows should go to Sturgis with your fat wallets.
Telling people that everything is great because unemployment is down and GDP is up requires the distribution of arcane economic numbers which don’t impress people who are struggling to buy gas and groceries. They are more influenced by the fact that everything in the Dollar Store now costs $1.25
And that is the problem for politicians on both sides of the aisle. There is a hazard, of appearing out of touch, in bragging about the economy when the average person isn’t feeling the joy. When your personal finances are tanking, hearing politicians tell you everything is good doesn’t go over well.
I bought a laundry basket in Dollar General that cost me $5 a few years ago. What rick have you been living under?
Speaking of stupid, of the most educated cities in the US South Dakota has none.
https://wallethub.com/edu/e/most-and-least-educated-cities/6656
Neil Young publicly reminded southern white men of their role (of sheer prejudice-spiked hatred that is boiling over today!) mass kidnapping, enslaving, abusing and killing black people to support their agricultural economy, by his 1970 song Southern Man (lyrics):
I saw cotton and I saw black
Tall white mansions and little shacks
Southern man, when will you
Pay them back?
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast
Lily Belle, your hair is golden brown
I’ve seen your black man comin’ round
Swear by God, I’m gonna cut him down
I heard screamin’ and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?
Young also sang similar criticisms in his later song Alabama. After southern rockers flying Confederate flags complained of being painted by Young’s broad brush, in their own hit southern anthem, he apologized for Alabama lyrics.
I note, recognizing the recent June 25 anniversary of Custer’s attack, Indians too complain they were painted by the broad brush as savages who massacred the attacking soldiers.
Cory’s link to Noem’s willingness to jump-in defending a recent Southern singer from Macon GA from criticism for his racist song and video urging violence, and with other comments here, make it clear the south apologists have not yet let go of their lost cause.
How long before we pay reparations?
But oh, it is “woke” to teach CRT (DeSantis’s whole election-hopeful platform). Neanderthal Republicans. Still cavemen who turned white over a million(s) years. JFC how hard is that to understand—grdz???
Lynyrd Skynyrd shot back at Neil Young in the song Sweet Home Alabama…
Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol’ Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around, anyhow
Grudz-we “libbie fellas” have far better things to do with an extra dollar or two than drop it in Sturgis to fatten your wallet, You know how it is, when ‘blue’ is the main contributor to the ‘red’ states that need ‘blue $$$’ to stay in operation of course, don’t you? And we didn’t get that “extra $” by cheaping the waitress that served us ‘taters and gray’!!!
If they are seeking “freedom” in Sturgis, Grudz, they are looking for “Fools Gold in the wrong Paradise” for sure. Not to mention fattening fat boy’s wallets….