One last chart below, showing four critical variables.
1) annual change in 15-64yr/old US population (grew line)
2) Disposable personal income (green line...total dollars nationally available for spending after all taxation is accounted for)
3) Wilshire 5000 (yellow line, market cap or value of all publicly traded US stocks)
4) Federal Funds Rate (black line, short term interest rates set by Federal Reserve)
As population growth of the adult core has decelerated (and subsequent growth in demand), interest rates have been cut to incent the substitution of leverage and debt to maintain growth. However, the growth has primarily been in asset values instead of economic activity or wage growth.
The chart showing real GDP goes thru 2016; last I heard we had early 3% growth in CY17 and same in Q1 2018. I’ll take that any day over the 1% doldrums of the past administration.