No. of Recommendations: 6
In March 2022, 75 percent of Americans said the economy was in trouble despite more than a year of historic gains in GDP and jobs. Today, Americans are whining about inflation and incomes, with 68 percent disapproving of the president's performance on inflation and 50 percent feeling worse off economically than a year earlier.
The pesky facts:
Inflation in February and March of this year, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), shows that prices for consumer goods and services increased an average of 0.2 percent per month.
On an annual basis, that comes to 2.6 percent inflation.
Inflation-adjusted disposable incomes of Americans per capita jumped 1.8 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Real disposable incomes of Americans rose 3.6 percent per person on an annual basis over the past nine months (Trump averaged 2.5%) and "the last time Americans saw real per capita incomes grow so strongly was in 1998 and 2000, when Bill Clinton was president."
Economists know better than to trust one or two months' worth of economic numbers. Still, other data covering the last four to nine months shows rapid disinflation and healthy income gains across the economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, household energy bills fell 4.1 percent from December 2022 to April this year, compared to a 6.6 percent increase for the same months in 2021-2022. Similarly, food prices climbed less than 1 percent from December to April, or 2.8 percent on an annual basis, compared to a 10.5 percent jump in 2022. So why the disconnect?
Well, first, democrats are TERRIBLE at messaging. Just look at the debt ceiling negotiations.
Second, Americans tend to be backwards looking rather than future focused.
For example, inflation increased by 0.3 percent in February and 0.1 percent in March, which, looking forward, translates into yearly inflation rates of 3.8 percent and 1.4 percent. But that's not what most people hear about because the annual inflation rates reported by the BEA and media for any month are based on how much prices increased over the year that ended that month. That translates into annual inflation rates of 5.1 percent for February and 4.2 percent for March because both rates incorporate the high inflation back from the spring and summer of 2022. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/05/23/why-dont-... 