>...[T]he economy could hardly be better [sic]
Short of profound institutional/political changes, this *is* about as good as the U.S. economy can be expected to get. The unemployment rate has been below 5% for 20 consecutive months, the longest such streak since the late 1960s; the lowest black unemployment rate since the current category (black, as opposed to "black and other") was first reported in 1972*; the lowest black poverty rate since figures begin in 1959; and the strongest, broadest increase in real wages (across the entire distribution) since the early 1970s. Whatever poverty and unemployment and economics stress remain isn't likely to be cured by more expansion.
Doug
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*Though, as LBO subscribers know, if you count the incarcerated population as unemployed - almost 8% of all black adult males - then the unemployment rate for black men would rise from the reported 6.7% (in December) to 16.5%.