Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
No. of Recommendations: 10
No. of Recommendations: 3
<Bidenomics continues to work.>
Let's compare that with...
Trump's job creation record, which was the worst of any American president on record.
No other modern president has left the U.S. with a smaller workforce than it had when they took office. (Since the government started keeping track in 1939.)
All while adding $8 trillion in new debt in just 4 years. A total disaster.
Is it any wonder many repubicans even think he's a joke...
"The amount he's added to the national debt is indecent." ~Mike Pompeo
"I hate him (Trump) passionately!" ~Tucker Carlson
"He's a &@#$ing moron!" ~Rex Tillerson
"We're on the verge of having someone take over the conservative movement who is a con artist." ~Marco Rubio
"Trump is utterly amoral." ~Ted Cruz
"You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell." ~Linsey Graham
"Trump's team is the Corleone's with no experience." ~Chris Christie
No. of Recommendations: 3
Bidenomics continues to work.
I understand the sentiment. But you do realize that this is exactly the reason why Biden's getting clobbered on economic issues?
Yes, inflation is down to 3.2%. Which is still the highest it's been in more than a decade. That's not low inflation - it's still high inflation. It only looks low compared to the terrible inflation that started in Q2 2021. And of course, even if inflation rates have fallen to a lighter shade of bad, that doesn't mean that prices have fallen. Prices are still super-high! People are still looking at their checkout receipts and going, "Damn, I can't believe how much a week's groceries cost." My wife said that to me last week!
Yes, rents are cheaper in 50 U.S. cities than a year ago. And they're still vastly higher than ever before. Because rents skyrocketed by 25% the year before. Having them drop half a percent isn't going to make people feel good about rents. They don't! The rents are too high compared to two years ago for them to be grateful that they're not as high as the peak.
Yes, gas prices are lower - now down to about $3.30 per gallon, nationwide. Which is still more expensive than at any point during the Trump administration. That's not to say that Presidents control gas prices - they don't. But it's absolutely tone deaf to trumpet gas prices not being as high as the $5 per gallon from earlier in your administration, instead of being aware that they're still higher than at any point in the preceding administration.
And that's before we get into interest rates - which are, of course, at multi-decadal highs and cause a lot of pain for a lot of people.
If Democrats don't get their head on straight and recognize that there's a lot about the economy that voters legitimately don't like, instead of always asking why Biden isn't getting more credit for how awesome the economy is doing, they're going to get spanked in 2024.
No. of Recommendations: 3
<If Democrats don't get their head on straight and recognize that there's a lot about the economy that voters legitimately don't like, instead of always asking why Biden isn't getting more credit for how awesome the economy is doing, they're going to get spanked in 2024.>
True. Unfortunately a major part of the problem is vast wealth inequality. The folks at the top have all the wealth. And that is not changing anytime soon.
It's the reason (imo) that many Americans are angry, and rightly so.
Thanks to ongoing Republican tax cuts for the wealthy, (and corporations) the inequality of wealth has substantially increased in the U.S. in recent decades.
The 400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as America's bottom 64%, nearly two-thirds of the nation's households, combined.
More than 10% of families have a negative net worth. It's no wonder that some of these folks think they might be better off under a christo-fascist authoritarian. (They will not.)
Look at the The Gini coefficient, it is used to determine a countries wealth inequality, the higher the number, the higher the wealth inequality.
The U.S. currently has a rather high 85% Gini coefficient. That puts us right in line with Haiti and Gambia. (No other industrialized country has a number that high!)
Janet Yellen has said, "There's no question that we've had a trend toward growing inequality and that this trend can shape and determine the ability of different groups
to participate equally in a democracy and have grave effects on social stability over time."
Economist Thomas Piketty argues, "Extremely high levels of wealth inequality are incompatible with the meritocratic values and principles of social justice
fundamental to modern democratic societies and that the risk of a drift towards oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism about where the United States is headed."
The answer is rather simple. We need to tax the wealthy, like we did in the 1940's, the 1950's, the 1960's and the 1970's and part of the 1980's. (Of course that is not gonna happen.)
No. of Recommendations: 0
If Democrats don't get their head on straight and recognize that there's a lot about the economy that voters legitimately don't like, instead of always asking why Biden isn't getting more credit for how awesome the economy is doing, they're going to get spanked in 2024.
As you pointed out, the POTUS doesn't control a lot of this. Rents? Gas prices? Nope. He may have influence over job creation and a few things, but even those things he doesn't really control. Congress probably has more influence since they control the purse strings, and approve (or not) various programs that can be stimulative (or not).
If we were to credit/blame Biden, I would point out that inflation is down...big time. Is it the lowest it's been this century? Nope. But it's lower than it was during COVID, which was a major disruptive event that is having far-reaching consequences (e.g. the workplace, and "work from home"). Again, the POTUS didn't control that, and arguably, neither can Congress. Stuff happens that we can only react to. I blamed Trump for his anemic reaction to the pandemic, but not really for the subsequent inflation (or increased jobless rate). I'm not sure Obama, or anyone else, could have had a better economic outcome from COVID.**
Of course, I realize that the reality is that voters blame the economy on the current POTUS. Not even Congress. The POTUS. Dems probably have to emphasize that things are much better than during COVID, but we still have more work to do. It's honest, and sort of accurate (i.e. the POTUS still doesn't control a lot of this stuff).
**Though I do blame him for the tax-cuts-for-the-rich. That hasn't helped our country at all.
No. of Recommendations: 1
If we were to credit/blame Biden, I would point out that inflation is down...big time. Is it the lowest it's been this century? Nope. But it's lower than it was during COVID, which was a major disruptive event that is having far-reaching consequences (e.g. the workplace, and "work from home").
That's not going to help the politics of this - especially since the Administration really blew their initial handling of high inflation. They went all in on "Team Transitory," and got burned by it. The fact that inflation is still really high compared to the last decade or more before Covid makes it utterly useless to claim that "Bidenomics" is delivering something that voters should like about inflation - especially with interest rates so high.
Gas prices are high, not low. Rents are high, not low. Inflation is high, not low. And interest rates are at multi-decadal highs. Things are better than 2022 but much worse than the end of 2019 is not a great selling point. "Bidenomics" is not a great strategy right now.
No. of Recommendations: 2
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/briefing/inflat...Just a contribution to the debate from a journalist. May be behind a pay wall.
The basic gist is that inflation isn't Biden's fault. Since Jan of 2021 it has been a global problem (except for Japan, per the graph they provided). But each region had some specific issues. In the US, it was demand. In Europe it was supply. Etc.
Not that this will account for the spin that is inevitable in political campaigns. So it still may not be a good campaign issue for Biden, even if it wasn't his fault.
In the U.S., demand has played a bigger role in inflation than it has elsewhere. That is likely a result of not just the American Rescue Plan but also economic relief measures enacted by Donald Trump. Altogether, the U.S. spent more to prevent economic catastrophe during the pandemic than most of the world did. That led to a stronger recovery, but also to greater inflation.
In Europe, supply has played a bigger role. The five-month-old war in Ukraine was a more direct shock to Europe than it was to the rest of the world, because it pushed the continent to try to end its reliance on Russian oil and gas. That prompted Europe’s recent jump in inflation.
No. of Recommendations: 3
The basic gist is that inflation isn't Biden's fault.
And that's not correct. The feds have been spending money they don't have - drastically increasing its supply and thus requiring more dollars to buy the same things.
No. of Recommendations: 4
Actually, Trump started that. The article talks about it, and points out that because of it, we had a stronger recovery than most other nations.
That was the one thing the article credited Trump with. I believe Biden expanded it.
Now we just need to raise taxes on the wealthy. Read another article that Friedman Economics is finally falling out of favor. Only the wealthy have benefitted since we implemented it. It took a while to adopt, and it will take a while to abandon. But it has apparently begun.
No. of Recommendations: 2
You don't continue to dump dollars into an expanding economy - that's insane, and it's what we're doing.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Additionally, to fair taxation of the wealthy, we could consider decreasing military spending by 20%and still have the strongest military in the world by a long margin. Reasonable cuts in domestic spending, like billions in support to already successful industries, banking regulations to stop periodic plunges into financial chaos also spring to mind.
Capitalism is given to abuses of unlimited freedoms.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Yes, we should look at that. We already are letting some expanded benefits expire (e.g. SNAP is being reduced after being increased for COVID).
Getting rid of oil subsides, corn subsides, and others, would be high on my list, but that is a political quagmire. The "farm bill" passes every year without any thought, for example.
