When the Commerce Department’s first estimate for 2019’s fourth quarter rolled in the door showing 2.1% growth, those hoping to see a return of the 3% “Goldilocks economy”, or one with just the right amount of growth, had to put their prosecco back in the refrigerator. There is plenty to like about this economy, and some of it has been described in this column, but, from all appearances, there will be no 2020 Goldilocks celebrations. We will just have to make the best of a slower situation and, unfortunately, borrow to make up for the lower federal revenues that would help fund our rich spending habits.

The fourth-quarter GDP number matched the third quarter’s 2.1% growth rate and slightly outdid the second quarter’s 2%. That made for the worst three-quarter performance since 2016 and came nowhere near the first quarter’s happier 3.1%. The sound of the Trump administration’s optimistic trumpets says just the reverse: As recently as Jan. 21, at the Davos world economic gathering, President Trump claimed that “the American dream is back bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”