Washington, DC - Friday brought more great economic news: higher-than-expected jobs growth in August, as well as a solid rise in wages - all with unemployment remaining at record lows. Manufacturing activity just hit its highest level since May 2004, and consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. And there’s good reason to think it’ll keep up.

The wage-growth number was the big one: The month saw average hourly wages jump 0.4 percentage points on top of a 0.3 rise in July, making August’s annual wage hike a solid 2.9 percent — the largest since June 2009.

The US economy is years into recovery, long past the point when most expansions falter.

The difference is that growth was so slow in the Obama years — when liberal economists told America that the “New Normal” was the best anyone could expect. But Team Trump didn’t buy that claim, insisting that a break with Obama-era policies could bring the boom times that mean higher pay and strong job growth.

President Trump delivered that break with a major rollback of regulations and a landmark tax cut, and the US economy is responding — following modest 2.2 percent annual GDP growth in the first quarter with 4.2 percent second-quarter growth.

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