For the past 12 years, Steven Rattner has annually published the Year in Charts for The New York Times, a compendium of 10 charts intended to illustrate the most significant events of the previous 12 months. This year, of course, the most momentous event was unquestionably the reelection of Donald Trump to a second, non-consecutive term as President, only the second person in American history to accomplish this. (Grover Cleveland was the other, in 1892.) With so much already said about that election, let’s instead review several other important moments of the year.
The economy had a strong 2024: robust growth, low unemployment and inflation descending to 3%. With President Joseph Biden’s four years in office coming to an end, it’s a fitting moment to review Biden’s accomplishments and how they compare to Trump’s during the preceding four years. (Note that Covid, which spanned the end of Trump’s term and the beginning of Biden’s, distorted a number of these indicators.) By the all-important measure of economic growth, Biden had by far the stronger performance (3.2% average versus 1.8%) but if the Covid period is excluded, Trump’s numbers are modestly better. (2.3% vs. 2.8%). On jobs, Biden clearly performed better, even when Covid effects are excluded. (7 million new jobs after Covid, modestly more than Trump pre-Covid)
Inflation, of course, is a different story, with price rises peaking at 7.2% in June 2022 and now down to 3%. By contrast, inflation averaged 1.6% during the Trump administration. Finally, the stock market’s performance was almost identical under both Biden and Trump: up 56%.
Two of the most concerning issues of 2024 were the problems at the southern border and the growing climate crisis. As to the first, the year ended with encounters at the southern border down to about 100,000 per month, not that much higher than the 74,000 a month just prior to Biden taking office. But along the way, that figure rose to about 300,000 a month. While the surge can be attributed to a number of reasons, a portion of the responsibility must be assigned to Biden who, among other things, announced a moratorium on deportations at the start of his term.
Meanwhile, the climate problem only got worse. 2024 was the second consecutive hottest year on record, averaging 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. Note how much higher temperatures were in 2023 and 2024 than in any preceding year.
On a happier note, the explosion of artificial intelligence services and their usage boomed. AI is on track to attain the highest rate of adoption of any new technology in memory. In 2024, 40% of Americans used ChatGPT and other generative AI. By comparison, two years after commercial release, fewer than 30% of Americans used computers and around 20% used the internet.
While the commercial success of AI services is yet to be proven, the stock market continued to demonstrate its optimism. The so-called Magnificent 7, which is comprised almost entirely of technology stocks, rose by 69%, compared to an overall rise in the market of 27%. The leader was Nvidia, the leading designer of semiconductor chips, whose shares rose by 179%.
