by Stephen Green
Are you better off than you were four years ago? According to new figures out late last week, inflation has savaged the gains in household wealth millions of American families had hoped to earn.
The Wall Street Journal has the devastating charts, but before I get to those, the mainstream media and big-name opinion writers seem to be missing the point on inflation. Because Presidentish Joe Biden’s mal-management of the economy — and your family’s financial health — goes far beyond last month’s or even last year’s inflation figures.
The Financial Times fretted in a recent piece that “Biden’s re-election prospects are being dogged by persistent fears over inflation, with 80 percent of voters saying high prices are one of their biggest financial challenges,” despite “falling steadily last year.” The uptick in inflation during the first part of 2024 has reversed “recent gains the U.S. president had made among the electorate about his handling of the U.S. economy.”
In a similar vein, ABC News reported Saturday that American adults they surveyed “trust former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden on the issue of inflation by a double-digit margin.”
Noah Smith — who gets a hat tip for the previous two links — is a little closer to the point in today’s Noahpinion column but still shy of the mark:
People are still understandably panicky after the experience of 2021-22. But the more recent surge was not just a temporary bump — underlying inflation is running at around 3.5%, which is considerably more than the rates that prevailed before Covid.
Indeed. And it’s still running ahead of most Americans’ wage growth. I’ve seen various estimates, but the typical worker’s earnings, adjusted for inflation, are between 4%-6% lower than they were before inflation began in earnest in 2021. Some common items, such as groceries, dining, rent, and house payments, have increased in price even faster than the average inflation rate. That means we’re spending more of our smaller paychecks on the necessities and less on the luxuries.
I hear there’s going to be a gas station/conservative drama play out in coming weeks where about 20 gas stations at a time, across the country, roll back their prices to the week joe biden assumed office as president.
Just enough to make the news both locally and nationally.
A dramatic act that media won’t be able to hide.
Unless you are a shoplifter, career criminal or illegal immigrant, NOTHING is better now than it was under Trump.