That was President Trump taking a victory lap on the news that the u. S. Economy grew at a robust rate at 4. 1 percent in the Second Quarter. The fastest pace in almost 4 years. Here with a look at whats behind that acceleration is chair of the White House Council of economic advisory. Nice to see you. 4. 1 percent. Economists predicted 4. 4, as you look at the details of the report. What do you like in it . It goes back to a piece i wrote a while back that Corporate Tax cuts would cause a Capital Spending boom. If you look at the average of the first half of the year, we got a Capital Spending boom in the average growth is 3. 1 percent. Its not often that economists can nail it that tightly and it showed its working exactly as we thought. Paul Capital Spending in the First Quarter was more robust than in the Second Quarter. Do you have an explanation for that . One of the things that happened is for Equipment Spending you were allowed to expense it retroactive to october. In the Fourt
we had this week with the eu because they removed the ball in the direction of freer and fair trade this week. paul: are we going to get a nafta deal before the fall? that thisrepublican congress ca on? wax i m not i m not a negotiator but what i m hearing is that they are making tremendous progress. my guess is that we will see something before the fall but i m not the person authorized to comment on those things. it is amazing the progress they are making. paul: thanks for being here. when we come back, united states and the european union declare a tariff terms as the two sides continue to negotiate a larger trade deal. is the over or are there hurdles ahead? great question. see, for a full service brokerage like ours, that s tough to do. schwab does it. next question.
part quote nothing has happened with zte, except as it pertains to the larger trade deal. we have not seen china s demands yet. which should be few in that previous u.s. administrations have done so poorly. in negotiating. china has seen our demands, there has been no folding as the media would love people to believe. the meetings haven t even started yet. the u.s. has very little to give, because it has given so much over the years. china has much to give. joining us now, former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst, steve rattner for more. this goes back to the infamous, too many jobs in china lost tweet, from the president, of a couple of days ago. why this company? why is he so focused on zte? because zte is one of the critical telecom providers in china and we have sanctioned them twice for violating the north korea, they paid over $1 billion in fines. they need our components in order to make their components. we have, the world has changed.
the president instructing the commerce department to bail out zte, despite they may impose a national security threat to the u.s. the president lashed out saying nothing has happened with zte except as it pertains to the larger trade deal. our country has been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with china. there has been no folding as the media would love people to believe, the meetings haven t even started yet. dana, the president has accused china of stealing jobs in graph being terms. he said that china is raping the country. what do you make of this tweet now, is this back peddling on what he said about saving zte
you say china wants breaks where they have sold 55 million phones, the president fired back today on twitter at you saying the washington post and cnn have typically written false stories about our trade negotiations with china. nothing s happened with zte except as it pertains to the larger trade deal. as he continued on to defend himself. is he mistaken or lying? yes. i mean, he s either mistaken or lying, right? not sure which is worse to be whons you. do you want a president who doesn t know what s going on in his own trade negotiations? he s tweeted about to be clear. and he s not just say thag the washington post is is wrong. commerce secretary ross said to the nshl press club yesterday, we received a list of chinese demands. they re different than ours. he said that on the record in front of a lot of people. cameras there and everything. so somebody s not talking to somebody. and so that gets to the basic