Mark, you represented much of our media when you wrote, "The economy was bad and getting worse". The economy was (is) not bad. In fact it has come back from the pandemic recession stronger and faster than almost any prior recession, but certainly better than the last few. Our unemployment is amongst the lowest it has ever been.
Inflation peaked a couple of months ago and is coming down. If you look at month-to-month comparisons it is now running in the 4-6% level down from 8-9% earlier this year.
It is true that with the Fed tightening we do not know if they will push us into a recession, but we still have production constraints in some industries and many professions are desperate for workers.
The media has hyped a bad economy and convinced themselves and others that the sky is falling. They convinced much of the country that the economy was bad, but surveys show that people are feeling ok about their own circumstances.
John: Thanks for your comments, which as usual are thoughtful and detailed. Perhaps I should have been more specific, since economy means different things to different people. As I've written before, there's a big difference in how economists and highly educated business people analyze the economy and how the public does. By technical definitions we likely aren't in a recession yet and the unique effect of the pandemic makes traditional comparisons difficult. But the average person judges the economy based on personal circumstances and because of inflation (whatever the cause) most voters have less spending power than they did 2 years ago. Very little (if any) of that is Biden's fault (as I've said before) but it still creates a more difficult political environment for Democrats.
Mark, you represented much of our media when you wrote, "The economy was bad and getting worse". The economy was (is) not bad. In fact it has come back from the pandemic recession stronger and faster than almost any prior recession, but certainly better than the last few. Our unemployment is amongst the lowest it has ever been.
Inflation peaked a couple of months ago and is coming down. If you look at month-to-month comparisons it is now running in the 4-6% level down from 8-9% earlier this year.
It is true that with the Fed tightening we do not know if they will push us into a recession, but we still have production constraints in some industries and many professions are desperate for workers.
The media has hyped a bad economy and convinced themselves and others that the sky is falling. They convinced much of the country that the economy was bad, but surveys show that people are feeling ok about their own circumstances.
And that is how they voted this week.
John: Thanks for your comments, which as usual are thoughtful and detailed. Perhaps I should have been more specific, since economy means different things to different people. As I've written before, there's a big difference in how economists and highly educated business people analyze the economy and how the public does. By technical definitions we likely aren't in a recession yet and the unique effect of the pandemic makes traditional comparisons difficult. But the average person judges the economy based on personal circumstances and because of inflation (whatever the cause) most voters have less spending power than they did 2 years ago. Very little (if any) of that is Biden's fault (as I've said before) but it still creates a more difficult political environment for Democrats.