The Economy & Pessimism
America has lots of reasons for optimism.
The US economy is booming. We have full employment. Unemployment is at 3.5%, a 54-year low. Real wages are rising after years of declines. Inflation has cooled to a reasonable 3.2%.. There will be no recession this year – or next. That’s the mainstream news and it’s all true.
Strong growth, record unemployment, plummeting inflation. The Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve projects that America’s gross domestic product may grow by an astounding 5.8% in the third quarter.
Thanks to vaccines, the public health crisis is largely contained.
Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act last year, clean energy and semiconductor companies have announced investments in 110 large-scale manufacturing projects worth about $224 billion, with the potential to create 100,000 jobs.
By any economic measure, the Biden economy is doing great.
That should be good news for President Biden. In January 2021, he inherited an economy in shambles with 10 million jobless and the worst disease outbreak in a century becoming still more deadly. Today that picture is entirely different.
Yet pessimism remains.
A lot of people don’t see the positive picture. They don’t care about the economic facts, which seem distant to them. They say, “from my perspective, the economy doesn’t look great.”
In last week’s Calhoun Chronicle, Linda Crawford pointed out that Yellow Trucking went bankrupt, a tin of sardines used to cost 9 cents, interest rates went up in 1978, and Memphis Light Gas & Water bills included the number 666.
Her point was that from her point of view, as an older person on a fixed income, the economy is “kind of broke.”
This is a valid point of view. We can’t help but see things from our own perspective.
If you’re on a fixed income, you can’t beat inflation. Your money is worth less and you’re not getting any more of it. (Some Democrats believe the U.S. should have a guaranteed national income to help people like her.)
Even if we’re not on a fixed income, we’re all very aware of inflation in our personal economies – the price of eggs (down by the way) and gas (holding steady). Inflation may be controlled now, but when it stopped, the prices were higher and few of them are going back down.
So people say, “How do these great numbers the Biden economy is putting up help me because . . . inflation?
The good news is that in mid-2023, U.S. inflation has slowed close to a desirable rate, usually set at 2%.
Moderate inflation goes with economic growth. In fact, some economists believe that if prices fall steadily, people will stop buying while they wait for a better deal. That would reduce demand, decrease production, and the economy would falter. (China is in a deflationary spiral and its huge economy is teetering.)
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. economy is steadily approaching the moderate desirable rate of inflation. The US now has the lowest inflation rate among modern economies.
Inflation in the last 2 years, largely caused by the pandemic, made us insecure. Being insecuremade us afraid and pessimistic. It takes time for people to trust that prices have stopped rising, that the situation is stabilized.
Optimism comes with trust that things will be better in the future. And trust takes time.
The positive changes are hopeful and if we can nurture and sustain these trends – not deny or minimize them – we will all have reason to be optimistic again.
Two points…….look at your 501K and two look at interest rates. Repeating a message does not make it so. I hope China doesn’t see this opinion piece and find out their economy is teetering….they might beg to differ.
This is some of he best comedy writing I have ever seen.
I appreciate y’all writing this stuff it is good to laugh out loud every so often.
Keep the comedy coming!!!
Someone is delusional . But dream on,Alice
Keep drinking the kool-aid
Good afternoon Diedre. I see you have carefully chose your talking points. Kudos for that. The issue I take to task are how your spin on the data, which is questionable because all you are really doing is putting the White House , which in turn becomes the Democratic party talking point. Things may paint a pretty picture on paper, but reality is something different. You tell us things are booming and Biden is responsible. He surely is. When we moved to West Virginia, gas was $1.80 per gallon. That was Dec. 24, 2019. Under Trump. After Biden shut the pipeline down, 《while simultaneously opening our borders) gas has more than doubled. You rightly say that inflation is hard on those with fixed incomes. According to the Social Security office, the average check is $1709 per month. According to Bidens economic council, the average family spends an extra $709.00 for the same amount of goods and services 18 months ago. That gives the average social security recipient some major decisions , like do I buy food or medicine, to make. I know, because some in Calhoun County are making that decision. Thank God for the food banks. The problem there is some people do not have a way to get them. The vaccine that the Biden administration refused to endorse under Trump suddenly became a God send under Biden. When talking about the vaccine harming the 3conomy, it definitely did. It was the blue states that stayed locked down the longest. Now the CDC is telling us that more harm than good came out of it, masking and social distancing were of no value. Now the Dems in some circles are gearing up for it again. Right at election time. What a coincidence. You talk of investment. It is great great these companies are expanding. Maybe you can share how much of this expansion is in the U.S. and how much in foreign countries. Those numbers are no surprise from the Biden regime. You are right about job openings. The biggest problem is trying to fill them. The lock down gave people more than enough to live on and the government gave them easy to sustain that income. So why work. Talk to small business owners and they will tell you the things they face. And not just with employee recruiting and retention. Even the military is dropping standards to get people to enlist. We can go on but the point I am making is people are not living the utopia you painted here. We can say how good things are we want. Tell the house payment things are so good but sorry you do not have the money to pay as you did before Biden took over. Or the grocery store, or wherever . Let me know how that works out for you. But again, thank you Diedre for for stating your position in a respectful manner. It is great to be able to state our opinions without malice or mockery.
I do not know how she writes this drivel with a straight face.