• 272K jobs added in May
• Total of 15.6 million jobs added under Biden
• Women's employment rate hits another high in May
• 30 straight months of unemployment rate at or below 4%
• Prime-working-age labor force participation at 22-year high
• Wages up 4.1% over past year, significantly faster than 3.4% inflation
As with all of her postings, everything Heather Cox Richardson says today deserves attention. She opens by noting that the Dow Jones closed above 40,000 for the first time in history. But "in comparison to the breathless coverage of the stock market during Trump’s administration, this milestone is getting very little coverage."
"If Donald Trump were in office today—presiding over full employment at a time when Americans enjoyed more purchasing power than ever before, and inflation was hovering steadily around three percent—he and Republican officeholders across the country would claim credit for building the greatest economy in history. In fact, if Trump defeats Joe Biden in November, they’ll all sing from that hymnal by early 2025."
"Letting people who hate Democrats or who are perennial critics of the U.S. economic system make all the strong claims about the economy, while the people in charge hide behind empathy for those left behind, is a big reason why public opinion and economic reality have detached from one another."
If Republicans are in charge, the economy is good!
If Democrats are in charge, the economy is bad!
And many Democrats have allowed the right to lock themselves into a defensive posture in which they feel compelled always to apologize for the economic performance of Democratic administrations, with claims that many folks are being left behind by economic recovery.
The media assist Republicans in framing matters in this way, it has to be noted.
"If we can swap Republicans for Democrats without changing anything else, and the mass 'struggling' magically goes away, it seems almost mathematically true that Democratic sheepishness over their economic successes is one of the key reasons Biden’s economy is widely viewed to be a failure."
Having said /1, Brian Beutler then addresses the push among some Democrats to pretend that the economy is bad, regardless of what facts say, because many Americans claim that they "feel" it's bad even as they admit their own economic circumstances are better.
"Americans are woefully ill-informed. That’s the only conclusion one can reach from a bunch of new polls that are chronicled in the links section below.
According to a new Harris poll for the Guardian, 55% of respondents think the economy is shrinking, 56% think the U.S. is in a recession, 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, and 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50 year high."
"A whopping 72% also say they think inflation is increasing.
There is only one problem. NONE of those things is true. The market went up roughly 24% in 2023 and is up another 12% this year. The unemployment rate is under 4%, a near 50 year low. GDP is growing and there hasn’t been a recession since early in the pandemic year of 2020. And the inflation rate is dropping — down to 3.4% in April."
"This data indicates that it’s very possible Biden could lose in November because people’s perceptions about the economy are flat out incorrect and many voters have little grasp of what is happening in our politics.
The media is almost certainly at fault for the misperceptions about the economy."
If you wanted to write today about vested interests, about the groups (and their networks) that are preventing governments from pursuing the reforms needed for Australia's economy to flourish, you'd have different targets.
#Inflation soared under President #Biden in 2021 & 2022, as the #economy emerged from the #pandemic recession [that began under Trump]. Its causes were complex, including snarled #SupplyChains, stimulative policies by the #FederalReserve &, to a degree, federal fiscal policies incl’ing #Covid relief bills signed by #Trump &…Biden.
#Biden has worked to limit prices for #PrescriptionDrugs like insulin & inhalers, rein in #bank#overdraft & #creditcard fees & make airline #travel cheaper & more transparent, achievements that he often discusses on the campaign trail.
“We’re taking on #corporate#greed to bring down the #price of gas, food & rent, eliminating junk fees,” #POTUS told a crowd of cheering supporters in Philadelphia last week.
Inflation Eases to 3.3% in May, Slightly Lower Than Expected (www.wsj.com)
Core prices that exclude volatile food and energy items climbed 3.4% from a year earlier
Trump Vows to Lower Prices. Some of His Policies May Raise Them. (www.nytimes.com)
Donald J. Trump has not released a detailed economic plan. But three of his key proposals would push prices up, economists say.