Those keeping a close eye on U.S. economic data had reason to celebrate yesterday morning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ new report on the Consumer Price Index showed that price increases slowed sharply last month — including the first month-to-month decline in more than four years.
The news not only offered fresh evidence that the United States has succeeded in getting inflation under control, it also opened the door to the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates in September, giving Americans a boost ahead of November’s election.
Not surprisingly, the White House was eager to tout the good news. President Joe Biden issued a statement that read in part:
“Today’s report shows that we are making significant progress fighting inflation. Overall prices fell last month, after staying flat in May, and core inflation is the lowest in more than three years. Prices are falling for cars, appliances, and airfares, and grocery prices have fallen since the beginning of the year. Thanks to my economic plan, wages are rising faster than prices, we’ve created 15.7 million jobs, and communities that were left behind by my predecessor are making ‘a remarkable comeback.’”
That quote at the end of the paragraph was in reference to a New York Times report, published this week, that read, “America’s so-called ‘left behind’ counties — the once-great manufacturing centers and other distressed places that struggled mightily at the start of this century — have staged a remarkable comeback. In the last three years, they added jobs and new businesses at their fastest pace since Bill Clinton was president.”
This is not the only encouraging news on the economic front. The job market remains strong; wages are up; and the stock market continues to reach new heights.
What’s more, there’s an international context to consider. The World Bank last month not only noted that the Biden-era economy is the world’s strongest, it also concluded that the global economy is in better shape in large part because of the United States’ recovery.
“Globally, overall things are better today than they were just four or five months ago,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist. “A big part of this has to do with the resilience of the U.S. economy.” Gill’s report further credited “U.S. dynamism” with helping to stabilize economies abroad.
A Washington Post report added, “The United States is the only advanced economy growing significantly faster than the bank anticipated at the start of the year.”
Around the same time, The Atlantic’s Rogé Karma described the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world.”
If the United States’ economy were an athlete, right now it would be peak LeBron James. If it were a pop star, it would be peak Taylor Swift. Four years ago, the pandemic temporarily brought much of the world economy to a halt. Since then, America’s economic performance has left other countries in the dust and even broken some of its own records. … There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.
Four years ago, Donald Trump told supporters that Democratic policies would “unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions” and force the country “into depression.” Everything he said and predicted was wrong — and the former president hasn’t even tried to explain why his predictions were so hilariously misplaced.
And yet, a newly released ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found Trump with a double-digit lead over Biden on whom voters trust more on the economy. There’s a larger conversation about why such public attitudes persist, but there’s also a more immediate problem for the White House and the Democratic Party. As a Semafor report noted this week, “If not for the brutal aftermath of Joe Biden’s debate debacle, Democrats might have spent the last couple of weeks celebrating some reassuring economic news.” Instead, it appears that the great news on the economy has been overshadowed by the debate over Biden’s 2024 fate to such an extent that much of country hasn’t heard about it at all. Making matters worse, it’s easy to imagine how the economic news will be incorporated into the intraparty fracas. One side of the Democratic divide will likely point to the great economic news and say, “See? Biden is a highly successful president who obviously deserves a second term! With results like these, it’d be absurd to push him off the Democratic ballot!” At that point, the other side of the Democratic divide will likely point to the identical data and say, “See? Despite being a highly successful president, Biden has a 37% approval rating, and the great economy hasn’t prevented him from falling behind a twice-impeached criminal! The sooner Biden passes the torch, the sooner Democrats can shift the public conversation!” When will this back-and-forth debate resolve? Your guess is as good as mine.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
