President Joe Biden and the rest of the Biden regime continue to claim “Bidenomics,” has saved the U.S. economy.
It is painfully obvious that none of these people live in the reality of the American working man and working woman. For them, the economy is teetering on the brink and Bidenomics has been a disaster.
At a Labor Day celebration in Philadelphia, the president claimed Bidenomics “is working,” and that Bidenomics is a “blue-collar blueprint for America … It’s for you.” I am not sure what economic data the president and his team were looking at, because last week’s inflation news was not good. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the measure of inflation to the American consumer, rose more than expected, to an annual rate of 3.7%. The rise in inflation was primarily driven by gasoline prices, the “shelter” index meaning rent and housing costs, and food — the basic necessities that impact working-class Americans the hardest. The shelter index alone has been on the rise for 40 consecutive months.
Considering that the CPI in August 2022 was at 8.3%, consumers are paying 12% more for goods and services in 2023 than they were in 2021. In fact, things are so bad that an April 2023 study from The Heritage Foundation, determined that Americans had lost around $7,100 in spending power since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. It has only gotten worse.
Per AAA, the national average for a gallon of gas rose by $0.05 last week, reaching $3.85. The primary culprit is the surge in oil costs, which have jumped several dollars to hover around $90 per barrel. This at a time when domestic demand for oil dropped by 1 million barrels a day.
Americans are seeing the same thing at the grocery store. Per the USDA, the average family of four was paying $89-132 more per month for the same groceries in January 2023 than in January 2022.
The loss of purchasing power is forcing more and more Americans to take-on debt in order to pay for necessities.
Credit card debt in America has surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, according to data released in August 2023 by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. People are not using their credit cards for vacations and new televisions, they’re paying for essentials such as gas, rent, and food, incurring debt at a current interest rate of 28.02%, per Forbes.
Driven by credit card debt and auto loan balances, overall household debt levels are at $17.6 trillion. Overall household debt has spiked by $2.9 trillion since the end of 2019.
At a time when, sadly, working Americans need credit to simply exist, credit is getting more difficult to obtain. Sixty percent of respondents to the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for August 2023 indicated that “the ability to get loans, credit cards and mortgages is harder now than it was a year ago, the highest level in a data series that goes back to June 2013.”
Per Bankrate, the rejection rate for all credit applicants, including those applying for car loans, mortgages, credit limit increases, new credit cards and more, increased to 21.8 percent,” and are at their highest levels since 2018.
Foreclosures continue to rise, with foreclosure starts up 15% in the first half of 2023 and nearly 186,000 properties have received foreclosure filings.
And if you’ve noticed more and more tow trucks on the road these days, your eyes are not deceiving you. As far back as February 2023, Cox Automotive reported that the rate of vehicle repossessions had increased more than 20%.
Inflation is here to stay, and apparently, so are high interest rates. Remember the wonderful economy of the 1970s?
As he seeks reelection, Joe Biden may want to find something else to highlight rather than the economy.
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Jim Nelles is a Navy veteran and supply chain consultant based in Chicago. His articles have appeared in the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Foxnews.com, and the Daily Wire. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.