We&#8217;ve been told by virtually every major media outlet that we are now in a soft landing, that inflation has started to decline, that the economy continues to sail along. 
But nobody is feeling like that.
This has been the big, perplexing question for Democrats. Why is it that the economy is so amazing, but nobody actually feels like the economy is so amazing?
One reason is that, contrary to popular opinion, we have not yet defeated inflation. Just yesterday, the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/inflation-march-cpi-report-interest-rate-239b7e5e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Stubborn inflation pressures persisted in March, derailing the case for the Federal Reserve to begin reducing interest rates in June and raising questions over whether it can deliver cuts this year without signs of an economic slowdown.
The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services prices across the economy, rose 3.5% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday. That was a touch higher than economists had forecast and a pickup from February’s 3.2%. So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, also rose more than expected on a monthly and annual basis.</blockquote>
This drove the stock market down roughly 500 points. It also meant that bond yields started to go up.
The bottom line is that inflation continues to run almost twice what it is supposed to be running. Year over year, the inflation rate is supposed to be about 2%, and it&#8217;s currently running at 3.5%. When that is added onto the giant inflationary bubble from 2021 and 2022, prices are up roughly 20% for most Americans.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1945-inflation-comes-in-hot-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Joe Biden&#8217;s economy has not made up those wage losses. Politico is <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/10/inflation-report-interest-biden-00151488#:~:text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20has%20been,news%20is%20reaching%20its%20limits." target="_blank" rel="noopener">sounding the alarm</a>: 
<blockquote>President Joe Biden has been presiding over a good news economy for the past year, with strong growth, low unemployment and falling inflation. 
But that good news is reaching its limits. 
The cost of living rose faster than expected in March, with prices up 3.5 percent from a year ago, according to the latest consumer price index report. And that likely means that Biden will have to live with high interest rates well into an election year, with investor hopes fading fast for a Federal Reserve rate cut in June.</blockquote>
The Federal Reserve has kept those interest rates pretty high by at least the last ten years of standards. That means money is less easy. That means IPOs are less easy. Finding money to actually fund your start-up is less easy. Loans are not as easy to come by.
Typically, that presages some sort of economic slowdown; when interest rates are increased, inflation is supposed to come down — but markets are also supposed to be impacted. An interest rate increase is supposed to drive down prices. That&#8217;s the purpose of the interest rate increase: to drive down prices. And that usually comes along with an economic cooling.
But if the economy is super-heated, that does not happen, and we&#8217;ve poured so much money into the economy in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, that the economy doesn&#8217;t seem like it&#8217;s going to slow down anytime soon.
You can make the case that it used to be supply chain problems that had driven the prices to exorbitant highs, but the supply chain problems — even though they&#8217;re still there in places like the Red Sea — are not nearly what they were during the pandemic. Yet inflation rates are still clocking in far too high.
Even <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/10/economy/cpi-consumer-price-index-inflation-march/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN is admitting</a> inflation is moving in the wrong direction, noting the latest consumer price report shows prices up 3.5% over the same period last year. 
Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, previously predicted there would be a massive inflationary cycle after 2020. People laughed at him because we hadn&#8217;t had a massive inflationary cycle in the United States for 40 years. But he was right.
Everybody is feeling it. Consumers are not confident in their ability to make on-time debt payments because interest rates are so high; if you get behind on your bills, it is very difficult to repay all of that.
All of this is very bad for Biden. When a connection is made between a staggering economy with a completely atrocious foreign policy and a president who is no longer with us, that is a bad indicator for a reelection effort.

President Biden To Promote Student Loan ‘Plan B’ In Wisconsin College Town

Legacy Media Says Economy Is Doing Great. Americans Aren’t Buying It.

Ben Shapiro

Economy

finance

Inflation

Opinion

Readers Pass

Stock Market

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) joined MSNBC on Wednesday to tout President Joe Biden&#8217;s record on the economy — specifically pointing to inflation and saying that it was &#8220;down&#8221; — and claimed that &#8220;disinformation&#8221; was the reason so many Americans weren&#8217;t seeing that progress.
Clyburn was still at it when &#8220;Morning Joe&#8221; host Mika Brzezinski — who agreed with Clyburn that &#8220;disinformation&#8221; was certainly a problem — broke in to point out the fact that inflation had risen more than expected in the last month.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Oops. Democratic US Rep. Jim Clyburn claims on MSNBC that the Biden administration has inflation under control — seconds before news breaks that prices rose more than expected last month. <a href="https://t.co/Mz8K1XxlsL">pic.twitter.com/Mz8K1XxlsL</a>
&mdash; TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/1778274065691656693?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;And so the inflation rates are down,&#8221; Clyburn began. &#8220;And people&#8217;s incomes are up. Unemployment is on the decrease. And although we see the prices at the stores costing more money, people are in fact earning greater incomes.&#8221;
&#8220;So what we&#8217;ve got to do is make sure that people see the policies of Biden administration, how they affect their everyday lives and get them to see in his policies that which is real, not what they may hear on social media,&#8221; Clyburn continued, arguing that &#8220;disinformation&#8221; on social media platforms was one of the main reasons people didn&#8217;t believe the Biden economy was working in their favor.
Brzezinski echoed Clyburn&#8217;s concerns about the impact of &#8220;disinformation,&#8221; but then shared a headline showing the most recent Consumer Price Index data — which revealed a greater-than-expected <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-claims-of-economic-victory-slapped-back-by-worse-than-expected-inflation-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase in the inflation rate</a> for the month of March: 3.5%, the highest increase in 6 months.
&#8220;There&#8217;s also a lack of validation that these voters feel,&#8221; Brzezinski said. &#8220;And I&#8217;m going to bring in Andrew Ross Sorkin right now because we just got breaking news — the Consumer Price Index increased at a faster-than-expected pace last month, a signal that inflation remains stubbornly high.&#8221;
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712932862202000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0plT8RRdMy9XUpIhocnjQS">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Despite efforts made by the Biden administration and surrogates to suggest otherwise, the American people also remain largely unconvinced that &#8220;Bidenomics&#8221; is working for them. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-favor-gop-to-democrats-on-economy-by-widest-margin-ever-in-poll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polls</a> — both formal and informal — suggest that most prefer the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-thinks-hed-be-more-popular-if-media-reported-on-the-economy-the-right-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economy</a> under former President Donald Trump.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Raise your hand if you think President Trump&#39;s policies on the economy would be better for your family ✋ <a href="https://t.co/5WqShG0mlZ">pic.twitter.com/5WqShG0mlZ</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1778070441648623789?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-NEWS-CLYBURN-CS

Democrat Tries To Spin Bad Inflation Numbers, But MSNBC Cuts Away To … More Bad Inflation Numbers

Democrat Tries To Spin Bad Inflation Numbers, But MSNBC Cuts Away To ... More Bad Inflation Numbers

James Clyburn

Joe Biden

Media

MSNBC

Politics

Democrat economist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/larry-summers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Larry Summers</a>, who repeatedly warned President Joe Biden in 2021 that his reckless government spending would lead to a serious inflation crisis, warned again this week that things have not improved and inflation is running much higher than the official government numbers state.
Summers&#8217; warning comes after Biden&#8217;s economy took a gut punch on Wednesday when a hotter-than-expected inflation report was released, showing a 3.5% increase over the last 12 months — the highest year-over-year increase since last September.
According to the latest <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/10/markets/markets-fall-cpi-inflation-report/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Consumer Price Index data</a> — which was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — key drivers of the higher rates include car insurance, groceries, electricity, and gas. New parents and pet owners are feeling the pinch as well, with baby food now up over 30% since 2021 and pet food up 23.7%.
The higher-than-expected inflation numbers come just a day after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed that overall household finances were “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sec-yellen-econ-splains-to-average-americans-your-finances-are-fine-everything-is-fine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quite strong</a>” — and may put a sizable kink in any plans to begin bringing interest rates back down.
&#8220;I was not hugely surprised by the numbers,&#8221; Summers said when asked during a Bloomberg News interview on Wednesday what he thought about the latest inflation numbers. &#8220;In an economy that&#8217;s growing faster than potential, with an unemployment rate that has a three handle in the presence of massive and growing budget deficits and epically easy financial conditions, the idea that inflation would remain robust, or even accelerate, should not be a surprise to anyone.&#8221;
Summers said that inflation is actually running higher than the 3.5% number that the Biden administration released.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;It was not me or some outside observer who emphasized the concept of super core inflation — that is taking out the transitory stuff and also taking out housing — and by that measure, inflation is running at above a 6% rate,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And the three month rate exceeds the six month rate and the six month rate exceeds the one year rate.&#8221;
Summers warned that interest rates are likely to climb even higher now — making it harder for Americans to buy homes and cars — and that &#8220;markets could crash.&#8221;
&#8220;This confirms the idea that the neutral rate is way above the 2.6% level that the Fed has been using as a North Star,&#8221; Summers said. &#8220;In my view puts back on the table, it is still not what I would expect, but you have to take seriously the possibility that the next rate move will be upwards rather than downwards. And anything could happen, markets could crash, the indicators could turn down. But on current facts, a rate cut in June, it seems to me would be a dangerous and egregious error comparable to the errors the Fed was making in the summer of 2021 when it just didn&#8217;t get the threat on inflation.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/LHSummers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lhsummers</a>, former US Treasury Secretary and Wall Street Week contributor, says he&#8217;s not surprised inflation rose again in March, but he says an interest rate cut in June by the Federal Reserve would be dangerous <a href="https://t.co/VVbO71W83N">https://t.co/VVbO71W83N</a> <a href="https://t.co/enjnKsEm5Z">pic.twitter.com/enjnKsEm5Z</a>
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/BloombergTV/status/1778105927066915298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
Summers warned last year that the trend for inflation rates under Biden closely match the inflation rates during President Jimmy Carter&#8217;s administration and that America may not have seen the worst of inflation yet.
&#8220;It is sobering to recall that the shape of the past decade’s inflation curve almost perfectly shadows its path from 1966 to 1976 before it accelerated in the late 1970s,&#8221; Summers wrote in a post on X that included a graph showing how inflation under Biden has mirrored inflation under Carter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It is sobering to recall that the shape of the past decade’s inflation curve almost perfectly shadows its path from 1966 to 1976 before it accelerated in the late 1970s. <a href="https://t.co/UpEk7x6FQt">https://t.co/UpEk7x6FQt</a> <a href="https://t.co/q9PwBRKzxN">pic.twitter.com/q9PwBRKzxN</a>
&mdash; Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) <a href="https://twitter.com/LHSummers/status/1695045318524440688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 25, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Virginia Kruta contributed to this report.

Obama Senior Economic Advisor Lawrence Summers Interview

Democrat Economist Who Warned Biden Of Inflation In 2021 Sounds Alarm Again: ‘Markets Could Crash’

Larry Summers

U.S.

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden&#8217;s</a> economy took a gut punch on Wednesday when a hotter-than-expected inflation report dropped, revealing a 3.5% increase over the last 12 months — the highest year-over-year increase since last September.
According to the latest <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/10/markets/markets-fall-cpi-inflation-report/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Consumer Price Index data</a> — which was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — key drivers of the higher rates include car insurance, groceries, electricity, and gas. New parents and pet owners are feeling the pinch as well, with baby food now up over 30% since 2021 and pet food up 23.7%.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨SINCE BIDEN TOOK OFFICE: 
Gasoline: 47.8% Groceries: +21.1% Eating out: +21.4% Baby food: +30.5% Pet food: +23.7% Rent: +20.9% Electricity: +28.3% Natural gas: +26.9% Used cars: +20.9% Air fare: +32.7% Public transportation: +22.2% Real average weekly earnings: -3.9%
&mdash; Jacki Kotkiewicz (@jackikotkiewicz) <a href="https://twitter.com/jackikotkiewicz/status/1778041940069564578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The higher-than-expected inflation numbers come just a day after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen insisted that overall household finances were &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sec-yellen-econ-splains-to-average-americans-your-finances-are-fine-everything-is-fine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quite strong</a>&#8221; — and may put a sizable kink in any plans to begin bringing interest rates back down.
Critics of the Biden economy weighed in on the news, noting that the inflation crisis was certainly not, as promised, transitory.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;Remember when the admin said inflation was transitory? Overall prices are still up 19.4% since Biden entered office. Oklahomans are paying nearly double at the grocery store. Rent, transportation, and energy costs are still way too high. Americans can&#8217;t afford the Biden economy,&#8221; Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Remember when the admin said inflation was transitory? Overall prices are still up 19.4% since Biden entered office. Oklahomans are paying nearly double at the grocery store. Rent, transportation, and energy costs are still way too high. Americans can&#39;t afford the Biden economy.
&mdash; Markwayne Mullin (@SenMullin) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMullin/status/1778076375573827658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) added, &#8220;Prices RISE by 3.5% in March over last year. But don’t believe your lying eyes. Biden told us it would be temporary, it would be transitory, and that costs were under control. It’s NEVER been more expensive to live in this economy.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Prices RISE by 3.5% in March over last year. 
But don’t believe your lying eyes. 
Biden told us it would be temporary, it would be transitory, and that costs were under control.
It’s NEVER been more expensive to live in this economy. <a href="https://t.co/7FLDyXg6Ah">pic.twitter.com/7FLDyXg6Ah</a>
&mdash; Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesleyHuntTX/status/1778104658420019601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Economist Stephen Moore shared side-by-side comparisons in three key areas that explained why Americans are not as enthusiastic about the economy as they were before Biden took office.
<ul>
<li>Inflation: Jan &#8217;21, 1.4%; March &#8217;24, 3.5%</li>
<li>30-year fixed mortgage rate: Jan &#8217;21, 2.65%; March &#8217;24, 6.82%</li>
<li>Average gas price: Jan &#8217;21, $2.39; March &#8217;24, $3.39</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bidenomics:  
𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Jan &#39;21: 1.4%  March &#39;24: 3.5%
𝟑𝟎-𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞 Jan &#39;21: 2.65%  March &#39;24: 6.82%  
𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 Jan &#39;21: $2.39  March &#39;24: $3.39
&mdash; Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenMoore/status/1778090695284154794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Republican National Committee (@RNCResearch) also posted a comparison chart showing the inflation rates of specific items under President Biden and under former President Donald Trump.
&#8220;You&#8217;ll never convince Americans that Biden&#8217;s economy is better than President Trump&#8217;s economy — because it isn&#8217;t,&#8221; the caption read. &#8220;SEE FOR YOURSELF.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You&#39;ll never convince Americans that Biden&#39;s economy is better than President Trump&#39;s economy — because it isn&#39;t.
SEE FOR YOURSELF: <a href="https://t.co/Vww0dhubnV">pic.twitter.com/Vww0dhubnV</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1778130220265918897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fox Business host Dagen McDowell added a twist as well, noting that President Biden&#8217;s continued insistence on unilaterally canceling student loans — in defiance of the Supreme Court — would only make things worse for families already feeling the pinch from inflation.
&#8220;Food, energy, car insurance (+22% y/y)! This is an unavoidable hardship and anxiety for working Americans,&#8221; McDowell said. &#8220;So Joe Biden again screws them + the nearly 90% of Americans with NO STUDENT LOAN DEBT and then hands them the bill for bailing out college graduates who didn’t feel like paying off their own debts.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
INFLATION WORSENING. 3-month annualized CPI ⬆️4.6% core ⬆️4.5% Food, energy, car insurance (+22% y/y)! This is an unavoidable hardship and anxiety for working Americans. So Joe Biden again screws them+the nearly 90% of Americans with NO STUDENT LOAN DEBT and then hands them the…
&mdash; Dagen McDowell (@dagenmcdowell) <a href="https://twitter.com/dagenmcdowell/status/1778100562199789948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Even Ron Klain, Biden&#8217;s own former White House Chief of Staff, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/09/ron-klain-joe-biden-infrastructure-00151438?nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=00000159-ec5d-da62-a5d9-ec5fbcf90000&amp;nlid=630318" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Politico</a> that Biden was making a strategic mistake when it came to the obvious problem of inflation and his reelection campaign.
&#8220;I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges. He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. And here’s a bridge. Like I tell you, if you go into the grocery store, you go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a f***ing bridge is not &#8230; Like it’s a bridge, and how interesting is the bridge? It’s a little interesting but it’s not a lot interesting.&#8221;

President Biden Hosts Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar

Biden’s Claims Of Economic Victory Slapped Back By Worse-Than-Expected Inflation Report

Biden's Claims Of Economic Victory Slapped Back By Worse-Than-Expected Inflation Report

Donald Trump

Jobs

Last week’s jobs report, combined with Wednesday’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/cpi-report-today-inflation-stock-market-04-10-2024">inflation number</a>, shows that we are living in two economies. One, in which the macroeconomic, top line numbers, combined with the stock market points to a robust economy. The second, in which the microeconomic numbers point to Americans struggling to make ends meet.
The United States labor market added more than 300,000 <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/heres-where-the-jobs-are-for-march-2024-in-one-chart-in-one-chart.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jobs</a> in March, which on the surface is excellent news. Unfortunately, the top sectors for gains — health care, social assistance, government jobs, and leisure and hospitality — drove the growth, accounting for more than 60% of the gains for the month. 
Conservatives, of course, want the government to be shrinking in size, not growing.
Beneath the surface, the numbers spell bad news for working Americans.
The growth in employment came from part-time, not full-time jobs.
An additional 525,000 part-time jobs were added in <a href="https://pro.thestreet.com/market-commentary/theres-a-serious-catch-in-the-jobs-report-and-no-one-is-talking-about-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March</a> and full-time jobs decreased by 222,000, according to The Street.
The <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/immigrants-get-100000-new-jobs-one-month-1887354#:~:text=Diane%20Swonk%2C%20KPMG%27s%20chief%20economist,she%20said%20in%20a%20note." target="_blank" rel="noopener">growth</a> in employment is primarily being driven by foreign-born workers, who have filled more than 1.25 million jobs over the last two months while the number of newly employed native-born Americans only increased by 435,000 over the same time period. As The New York Post noted, this helps to explain why <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/05/business/us-employers-add-303k-jobs-in-march-unemployment-ticks-lower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wages</a> increased at a modest 4.1% from a year ago, the smallest increase since June of 2021.
It is getting harder to make ends meet.
At the start of 2024, 8.7 million people were working <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-7-million-americans-now-193011733.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMdnvpG6jLSb5Ete-vfg-p37rW6obahlKfRMwpoebJ5JKHMbbX3YihV55W49tAb2huZGSKGbHCEyqQ2lBA6_TrVSbGdxxJXLmBleJ6l_k5iSJdNragzOV-lgdRcKxs7KeKLYo2AFzjoFeSGCLQvDYAqdBvEa9SdqyCSa2e4OE8MK" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiple</a> jobs in the United States, in order to fill their cars with gas and put food on the table. A report in USA Today found that at the start of 2024 there were 4.2 million people working <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/01/25/part-time-jobs-hit-record-high/72331112007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">part-time</a>, not by choice, but because their employers reduced hours or they could not find full-time work.
This combination of the growth in part-time work and depressed wages point to a weak job market, not a strong job market. The number of people working multiple jobs also artificially inflates the job numbers, as each job counts, not each person.
The rising tide of a “hot” jobs market and a soaring stock market is not lifting all boats. The <a href="https://www.morningstar.com/markets/is-stock-market-expensive-right-now" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stock market</a> rose nearly 8% in the first quarter of 2024 and is up more than 25% since its October 2023 lows, according to Morningstar.
However, there&#8217;s a marked increase in emergency 401(k) withdrawals, auto repossessions, and record numbers of people backing out of agreements to purchase a home.
Nearly 3.6% of workers who have a 401(k) <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retirement</a> plan made a hardship withdrawal in 2023, a major increase from the 2.8% in 2022. The pre-pandemic average was 2%. The Federal Reserve <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bank</a> of New York reported that “the annual rate for car owners behind a month or more on their payments was 7.7%, the highest rate since 2010.” And in November 2023, nearly 17% of potential home buyers backed out of their agreement to purchase a home for which they had signed a contract.
Perhaps this explains why Americans are skipping meals to afford housing. A study from Redfin, as reported by <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a> shows that half of homeowners and renters have had to make sacrifices to afford their mortgage or rent payment. Homeowners report selling belongings, working overtime, canceling vacations, taking on a second job, and skipping meals in order to make a mortgage payment.
The March 2024 <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Consumer Price Index</a>, the common measure of inflation, was at 3.5%, above expectations, driven by energy, food, and shelter; the basket of needs for all Americans. Core CPI, which excludes volatile variables such as fuel and food was at 3.8%. Both numbers were hotter than expected. 
Dow futures immediately <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> over 500 points upon the release of March&#8217;s inflation numbers.
<a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cumulative</a> inflation since January 2021, when Joe Biden took office, is 18%, 6% per year — three times the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Working Americans do not care about The Fed’s inflation target, they care that, since Biden took office, it now takes nearly $120 to buy what $100 would buy you at the end of the Trump presidency.
Americans are also seeing <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflation</a> at the pump, according to NerdWallet. Oil is at $85 per barrel, and the average regular gas price in the United States, as of April 5, was $3.582 per gallon, 22 cents higher than March’s average. The price of a gallon of gas has increased 49 cents since the start of 2024.
Commodity prices are rising, with <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gold</a> at record highs, signaling that people are bearish on the U.S. economy and the U.S. Dollar.
It is no wonder credit card <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt</a> is at record highs, topping $1.13 trillion. Working Americans are not maxing out their credit cards in order to fly to Paris, pay for massages, or by that 75-inch TV. No, they are buying groceries, gas, and paying their utility bills, and paying nearly 25% <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interest</a> for the privilege of doing so.
More than 33% of Americans have more credit card <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/401k-hardship-withdrawals-surge-another-record-high-inflation-stings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt</a> than emergency savings and 56 million Americans have been in credit card debt for at least a year.
Nearly one-third of residents in the country’s largest 100 metropolitan cities were behind on at least one debt payment in Q3 2023, and more than 25% had delinquencies of 90-days or more. 
Americans are working more part-time jobs, making less money, losing their cars, and unable to purchase a home. If they can afford a home, lunch becomes a forgotten meal.
Commodity prices are rising, gas is more expensive, and inflation is certainly not transitory. None of the indicators point towards an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in 2024. In fact, one could argue that we need another quarter-point increase in rates.
Will the Fed play a political role and give Joe Biden the gift of interest rate cuts, or will the Fed fulfill its apolitical charter and guide the economy?

Shopping Trolley Growth

Inflation And The Two Sides Of The American Economy

Federal Reserve

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Americans on Tuesday that their household finances were &#8220;quite strong&#8221; despite numerous polls indicating that&#8217;s not at all what average families are seeing from their kitchen tables.
Yellen made the assertion during an interview that aired on CNBC, where she concede that some lower-income families might be close to &#8220;exhausting&#8221; any buffers they may have had with regard to savings — but insisted that otherwise, household finances and the economy as a whole were &#8220;quite strong.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/SecYellen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecYellen</a>⁩ tells Americans that their household finances are “quite strong” <a href="https://t.co/gV1ns38B4U">pic.twitter.com/gV1ns38B4U</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1777668796330746095?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I believe inflation will continue to come down,&#8221; Yellen said — and when asked whether she believed the economy would &#8220;continue to hold up&#8221; in the days to come, she replied, &#8220;I think we&#8217;ve got a good, strong economy.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got very strong domestic demand, consumers are holding up — some low income consumers are perhaps exhausting their buffers of saving that they built up during the pandemic, we&#8217;re seeing a little bit more distress at the household level there, but generally households are in very good financial shape, our financial system is generally quite strong,&#8221; Yellen continued.
Yellen&#8217;s comments come on the heels of a number of polls indicating that average Americans do not agree with her — and many of them believe they were economically better off under former President Donald Trump than they have been under President Joe Biden.
A recent evaluation of several polls — compiled in late March by the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-voters-feel-about-the-economy-4-takeaways-from-the-latest-polls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brookings Institution</a> — showed that nearly across the board, Americans don&#8217;t believe the Biden economy has done them any favors.
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A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/business/economy/biden-economy-times-siena-poll.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times poll</a> conducted in early March, for example, showed that just 26% saw economic conditions as &#8220;excellent or good.&#8221; More than half (51%) said conditions were &#8220;poor&#8221; and 23% said that economic conditions were &#8220;fair.&#8221;
An <a href="https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_mTlzQOB.pdf#page=111" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Economist/YouGov survey</a> published in late March did not paint a rosier picture for Biden: just over one-fifth of voters (21%) believed the economy was getting better, while more than half (52%) said that it was getting worse.
A March poll from <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-trump-leads-biden-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a> took things a step further, asking voters to directly compare Biden&#8217;s economy to Trump&#8217;s: when they did so, only 38% rated Biden&#8217;s economy as good — compared to 65% who said Trump&#8217;s economy was good.

Janet Yellen

Sec Yellen Econ-Splains To Average Americans: Your Finances Are Fine, Everything Is Fine

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, issued a sober warning for the U.S. economy in his annual letter to investors this week.
Dimon pointed to wars breaking out in Europe, the Middle East, and growing tensions with China as major drivers to economic uncertainty which have helped fuel &#8220;higher energy and food prices, inflation rates and volatile markets.&#8221;
The crises on the foreign policy front are largely a reflection of President Joe Biden&#8217;s weakness on the world stage as America&#8217;s adversaries have felt that they have more latitude in what they are able to get away with under the current administration, critics say.
&#8220;It is important to note that the economy is being fueled by large amounts of government deficit spending and past stimulus,&#8221; Dimon said. &#8220;There is also a growing need for increased spending as we continue transitioning to a greener economy, restructuring global supply chains, boosting military expenditure and battling rising healthcare costs. This may lead to stickier inflation and higher rates than markets expect. Furthermore, there are downside risks to watch.&#8221;
Dimon warned that too many were focused on the short-term and not nearly enough people were focused on the long-term trends and what they could mean for the U.S. economy:
<blockquote>For example, today there is tremendous interest in monthly inflation data, although it seems to me that every long-term trend I see increases inflation relative to the last 20 years. Huge fiscal spending, the trillions needed each year for the green economy, the remilitarization of the world and the restructuring of global trade — all are inflationary. I’m not sure models could pick this up. And you must use judgment if you want to evaluate impacts like these.
Also, a block of time as short as one year is an artificial framework for judging the impact of long-term trends that could easily play out over years. A helpful exercise is to think “future back,” in which you imagine different future outcomes, including the ones you want, and then work backward to events that are happening today (or that might happen or that you cause to happen), closely examining the connections between those events and your projected or desired outcomes. Those connections inform your risk and R&amp;D planning. Similarly, when companies compare the attributes of their products and services with their competitors, they usually only consider where they are versus their competitors. But nothing is static — they should consider where their competitors will be in the future. Conditions are always changing, crises are always emerging. When analyzing the playing field, it is better to assume that your competitors are strong and are already in the process of improving and innovating. This minimizes the chance of arrogance leading to complacency.</blockquote>
He said that markets believe there is a &#8220;70% to 80% chance of a soft landing&#8221; for the U.S. economy — meaning modest growth along with declining inflation and interest rates — but he believes that number is far too high.
&#8220;I believe the odds are a lot lower than that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In the meantime, there seems to be an enormous focus, too much so, on monthly inflation data and modest changes to interest rates. But the die may be cast — interest rates looking out a year or two may be predetermined by all of the factors I mentioned above. Small changes in interest rates today may have less impact on inflation in the future than many people believe.&#8221;
He said that people need to be prepared for inflation rates to skyrocket again to potentially higher than 8%, &#8220;with equally wide-ranging economic outcomes — from strong economic growth with moderate inflation (in this case, higher interest rates would result from higher demand for capital) to a recession with inflation; i.e., stagflation.&#8221;

U.S.-WASHINGTON, D.C.-SENATE-HEARING-BANK-CEO

America’s Top Bank CEO Warns Biden’s Inflation Crisis Not Over

Jamie Dimon

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>-based retail chain 99 Cents Only Stores will shutter all of its 371 stores in the coming months, citing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflationary</a> pressures and economic headwinds.
The store, which was founded in 1982, made the <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/99-cents-only-stores-announces-wind-down-of-business-operations-302108746.html?tc=eml_cleartime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> on Thursday that all of its stores across  Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas would be closed down. Mike Simoncic, the Interim Chief Executive Officer of 99 Cents, pinned the blame for the closures on a variety of factors, including the COVID pandemic and a struggling economy.
“This was an extremely difficult decision and is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve,&#8221; Simoncic said. &#8220;Unfortunately, the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment, including the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting consumer demand, rising levels of shrink, persistent inflationary pressures and other macroeconomic headwinds, all of which have greatly hindered the Company&#8217;s ability to operate.”
The company said in a press release that it would be entering an agreement with Hilco Global to liquidate all of its merchandise and other equipment and furnishings from the store.
“99 Cents Only Stores, together with its financial and legal advisors, engaged in an extensive analysis of all available and credible alternatives to identify a solution that would allow the business to continue,” the company said. “Following months of actively pursuing these alternatives, the company ultimately determined that an orderly wind-down was necessary and the best way to maximize the value of 99 Cents Only Stores&#8217; assets.”
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The store, <a href="https://99only.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once</a> one of the top extreme value retail stores in the Western United States, sold inexpensive produce, household items, seasonal and party merchandise, office supplies, and other products. Currently, the company has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/99-cents-only-stores/?sh=25b6b1bb4c33" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about</a> 17,000 employees, meaning they all could be out of a job as the company closes up.
“We deeply appreciate the dedicated employees, customers, partners, and communities who have collectively supported 99 Cents Only Stores for decades,&#8221; Simoncic added.
California retailers have struggled in recent years due to the impacts of COVID lockdowns, widespread shoplifting at many stores in urban areas, and inflation that has plagued the economy under President Joe Biden.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-pac-launches-interactive-website-to-show-how-food-prices-have-skyrocketed-under-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump PAC Launches Interactive Website To Show How Food Prices Have Skyrocketed Under Biden</a>

US-ECONOMY-RETAIL-99CENTS-CLOSING

California Retail Chain Closing All 370 Stores After ‘Persistent’ Inflation And Economic ‘Headwinds’

California

Generation Z and younger millennials have the misfortune of being ready to buy a home amid a prohibitively expensive housing market.
As the youngest generation of adults looks to buy their first home, they&#8217;re finding it&#8217;s often cheaper to just keep renting than to invest in a mortgage right now.
Some are waiting out the unwelcoming housing market with a seemingly endless cycle of rent payments, but some are biting the bullet and purchasing now.
&#8220;We bought so our money wouldn&#8217;t go to someone else&#8217;s mortgage,&#8221; a Gen Z homeowner and new mother of a baby boy in Virginia told The Daily Wire.
She and her husband wanted to own land, she said. They plan on putting a few extra thousand dollars toward the principal of their mortgage every year, and they also invested in a larger down payment to get a lower fixed interest rate.
&#8220;There are ways to manipulate the system, but again, you usually need some money up front to do so,&#8221; she said.
She added that there is &#8220;a lot of ignorance&#8221; among young home buyers.
&#8220;Every young homeowner I have spoken to looks like a deer in the headlights when I mention how crazy it is that your interest rate can end up costing you at least double the cost of the house across 30 years,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And most people don&#8217;t realize they are paying mostly interest during the early mortgage years and the bulk of the principal later on. Works great for the loaners.&#8221;
Despite the challenges, there have been big upsides to owning a home, she said.
&#8220;Homeownership has made us feel unrestricted in our homemaking and privacy,&#8221; the mom said.
A Gen Z man who is getting married this summer in the Washington, D.C., area said he is planning to wait a year or two before buying a house. His fiancée, a younger millennial already owns a condo, and they plan to hang onto that property as the value goes up, although they hope to move into a second home once they have their first child.
&#8220;A medium to large-sized house is pretty much guaranteed to be a million bucks,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The &#8216;350k or lower&#8217; dream is kind of out the window &#8230; After a quick glance at the market a couple months ago, it looks like the expectation is 700k or more, and that&#8217;s before all that yucky interest.&#8221;
Home prices <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/04/housing-affordability-crisis-states-00150463#:~:text=Income%20Housing%20Coalition.-,Home%20prices%20are%20up%2047%20percent%20since%20January%202020%2C%20and,and%20fewer%20people%20over%20time." target="_blank" rel="noopener">are up</a> 47% since the beginning of 2020, while rent is up more than 20%. Homelessness has spiked as well, rising 12% in 2022, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/04/housing-affordability-crisis-states-00150463#:~:text=Income%20Housing%20Coalition.-,Home%20prices%20are%20up%2047%20percent%20since%20January%202020%2C%20and,and%20fewer%20people%20over%20time." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Renting a two-bedroom residence is now actually cheaper than buying that property for about 89% of Americans, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231128140139/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/28/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-buy-property" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a November analysis by The Economist.
Back in 2020, that was true for only 16% of Americans.
Meanwhile, the housing crash that many potential home buyers <a href="https://www.inman.com/2023/11/28/35-of-americans-hope-the-housing-market-will-crash-in-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hoped</a> for does not look likely to happen. In November, nearly half of Americans, 44% said they thought the housing market could crash in the next year, according to a LendingTree consumer survey. Economists say they do not expect a housing crash either this year or even in 2025.
In fact, house prices are expected to keep rising as much as 4.1% this year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/housing-market-predictions-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage prices are expected to dip but not by much, and rent prices will likely remain about the same due to a glut of newly built apartment buildings with low demand.
Nevertheless, the tough market has not stopped millennials and even some Gen Z-ers from buying homes, perhaps simply because they are fed up with waiting for the market to turn in their favor.
About 38% of all home buyers were millennials last year, <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/home-buyer-and-seller-generational-trends" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a report from the National Association of Realtors, up from 28% in the previous year. Among younger millennials ages 25 to 33, 75% were buying a home for the first time.
The younger Gen Z buyers ages 18 to 24 made up only 3% of home buyers last year, showcasing both the difficulty of breaking into the housing market at a young age as well as the tendency of today&#8217;s young adults to wait before tying themselves down to one property.
Baby Boomers, the wealthiest generation is also contributing to the housing shortage by staying put in their current homes, reluctant to lose the lower mortgage rates they locked in during less expensive years. Previously, older generations would typically move into smaller homes as they aged, freeing up inventory for younger families, but nearly 40% of Boomers have lived in their home for at least 20 years, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/blame-baby-boomers-housing-shortage-redfin-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Redfin.
This shortage is causing any property that does go on the market to sell quickly at very high prices, often above the asking price.
Despite the daunting circumstances, some younger buyers remain optimistic, although they have adjusted their expectations.
The engaged Gen Z-er said he remains hopeful that he and his fiancée will find something they both love.
&#8220;I basically just want a three-bedroom house with a large backyard and some quiet. It exists, but it&#8217;s just a lot more than I thought it was,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My plan is to put a really big down payment on whatever we get.&#8221;

Home for sale with real estate sign

Gen Z, Young Millennials Debate Endless Rent Or Sky-High Mortgages

Gen Z

Generation Z

Housing

Millennials

A political action committee backing former President Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign has rolled out a new website highlighting the dramatic increase in grocery prices since President Joe Biden took office. 
The <a href="https://www.biden-mart.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>, which was created by Make America Great Again Inc, is called “Biden-Mart.&#8221; It allows visitors to compare the prices of fruits, vegetables, and meats at the end of Trump’s presidency to current prices under Biden. The website cites data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from January 2021 and January 2024. 
“Every time you go grocery shopping you are reminded of the failure of &#8216;Bidenomics,&#8217;” Alex Pfeiffer, spokesman for MAGA INC, told The Daily Mail, which first <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13250027/trump-super-pac-biden-mart-grocery-shopping-expenses.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on the website. “Joe Biden&#8217;s inflation is robbing hard-working Americans of their money.”
The interactive site allows people to compile their weekly grocery lists to “see how much more expensive your bill has become under Joe Biden.” Foods listed on the website include chicken, eggs, ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, oranges, milk, grapes, sweet corn, cheese, yogurt, butter, eggs, coffee, and other meats and vegetables. 
According to the website, some of the products with the most significant jumps under Biden include apples (111% increase per 2 pounds), boneless chicken thighs (91% increase per 2 pounds), ribeye steak (82% increase per pound), and ground beef (66% increase per 2 pounds). 
<div id="attachment_717279" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-717279" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-717279 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-01-at-10.34.47-AM-1024x435.png" alt="" width="1024" height="435" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-01-at-10.34.47-AM-1024x435.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-01-at-10.34.47-AM-300x127.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-01-at-10.34.47-AM-768x326.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-01-at-10.34.47-AM-1536x653.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-01-at-10.34.47-AM-2048x870.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot: &#8216;Biden-Mart&#8217; website.</div>
Last month, the USDA said that food prices would likely continue to increase in 2024, but at a slower pace. In 2023, food-at-home prices, food purchased at grocery stores as opposed to food purchased at restaurants, increased by 5%, and those prices are expected to continue to tick up by 1.6% in 2024, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the USDA. 
While Biden blamed corporations for increasing food prices, Trump said that Biden&#8217;s policies caused inflation. Biden has attacked several large companies over &#8220;shrinkflation,&#8221; saying that they have reduced the amount of product while prices remain the same. 
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“Likewise, the sight of a feeble Joe Biden talking about ‘shrinkflation’ — the term he uses — is one of the most ridiculous things this country has ever seen,” Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2908660/state-of-union-trump-biden-border-inflation-prebuttal-video/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> ahead of Biden’s State of the Union last month. “Shrinkflation is just another way of saying inflation — it means that you’re losing a lot of money because these people don’t know what they’re doing.”
“Under my leadership, there was no inflation. We had the greatest economy in the history of the world,” Trump said. “It’s time to tell crooked Joe Biden, ‘You’re fired.’”

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

Trump PAC Launches Interactive Website To Show How Food Prices Have Skyrocketed Under Biden

2024 Election

Economics

Elections

Executive

Food

Trump 2024

Democrat businessman Gary Cohn, who served as former President Donald Trump&#8217;s Director of the National Economic Council, said during an interview over the weekend that consumers were &#8220;completely right&#8221; to be angry about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflation</a> that President Joe Biden&#8217;s American Rescue Plan has caused.
Cohn made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CBS News&#8217; &#8220;Face The Nation&#8221; with Margaret Brennan while talking about Biden&#8217;s recent remarks about billionaires.
Responding to Biden&#8217;s claims that billionaires do not pay any taxes in the U.S., Cohn noted that the claim was grossly inaccurate and that any billionaire who has an income in the U.S. is paying at least 20 percent in taxes.
&#8220;We do a very good job in this country of taxing income. That&#8217;s what the Constitution talks about. The Constitution talks about taxing your income,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There is no income in this country unless you buy a tax-free bond that doesn&#8217;t get taxed at a minimum of 20 percent. Whether it&#8217;s interest or dividends or capital gains. So, there&#8217;s no billionaire in this country that has income that is not paying at least 20 percent.&#8221;
Brennan then noted how Biden was trying to rile people&#8217;s anger up against corporations, claiming that they were &#8220;taking advantage of the little guy.&#8221;
&#8220;Let&#8217;s talk about inflation for a minute because I think there [are] really important concepts for everyone to understand,&#8221; Cohn said. &#8220;Inflation has a compounding effect. Meaning, as you look at inflation year over year, you&#8217;re adding up those numbers. You&#8217;re not starting at a zero every year.&#8221;
&#8220;So, if we had 6 percent inflation last year &#8230; and now we have 4 percent inflation, that&#8217;s 10 percent inflation,&#8221; he noted. &#8220;So, if you take a basket of groceries at the beginning of 2020, just a simple basic basket that costs $100, it costs well over $125 today because those 4 percent one year and 7 percent one year and 7 percent the next year, they add up. They&#8217;re cumulative. So, there&#8217;s a huge cumulative effect to inflation.&#8221;
Brennan responded, &#8220;So, when people are being told, &#8216;consumers, you&#8217;re wrong, inflation&#8217;s heading&#8211;&#8216; — no, they&#8217;re right, it is actually more expensive.&#8221;
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&#8220;They&#8217;re completely right,&#8221; Cohn responded. &#8220;They&#8217;re completely right.&#8221;
Cohn added that consumers were angry because they were &#8220;losing purchasing power&#8221; because of inflation and people were not able to invest in their futures because of the high interest rate environment that was triggered by the inflation that Biden caused.
&#8220;So, people got very frustrated because the costs of their everyday lives got very expensive and the cost of investing in their future by buying a home got nearly impossible,&#8221; he added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: Gary Cohn decimates Joe Biden’s inflation narrative &amp; Bidenomics:
“Inflation has a compounding effect. Meaning as you look at inflation year-over-year, you’re adding up those numbers. You’re not starting at a 0 every year. So if we had 6% inflation last year and now we… <a href="https://t.co/Q0K2QjUNRJ">pic.twitter.com/Q0K2QjUNRJ</a>
&mdash; Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1766907240580051119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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US-ECONOMY-MILKEN

Democrat Economist Gary Cohn: Consumers ‘Completely Right’ To Be Angry Over Biden Inflation

Inflation Reduction Act

Failed public policies are undermining the institution of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/marriage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">marriage</a> in America. Rates of both marriage and child births have been trending down for decades, but the current cost-of-living crisis is poised to accelerate these declines. If you can’t afford a place to live, chances are you won’t get married and have kids.
That’s precisely the calculus for millions of young Americans today who can’t make ends meet despite a record number of them holding second or even third jobs. Sixty percent are living paycheck to paycheck. Americans have accumulated a record-high $1.1 trillion in credit-card debt as many can’t cover even necessities.
But Americans aren’t just falling into debt — they’re falling behind on payments too. Defaults and delinquencies are rising at the fastest pace since the Great Recession when there was a mortgage meltdown and a global financial crisis.
The financial strain on American families explains why people view current economic conditions so unfavorably in polling. Perhaps nothing illustrates this pessimism better than the housing market.
The monthly mortgage payment on a median-price home has doubled in the last three years. Unless your income has also doubled, you’re falling behind when it comes to buying a house.
The median price of a new home has shot up to a stratospheric $435,000. Even the median price of an existing home, at about $387,000, would have been inconceivable three years ago.
The typical family buying a home today will have a monthly cost of homeownership around $3,000. That’s about half the median household income — before income taxes. It’s no wonder that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s <a href="https://www.atlantafed.org/center-for-housing-and-policy/data-and-tools/home-ownership-affordability-monitor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homeownership affordability index</a> is at a record low today.
The index even shows that the cost to own a median price home in several major metropolitan areas requires more than 100% of the median household after-tax income. In only a single metropolitan area with at least 500,000 people is the median price home affordable in America.
<div id="attachment_695083" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-695083" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-695083" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-864x576.jpg" alt="Catherine McQueen. Getty Images. home for sale real estate sign ~ shot with canon eos rp" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/GettyImages-1400734918-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Catherine McQueen. Getty Images.</div>
While homeownership is normally a great tool for building wealth, it is also often a precursor to major milestones in life, like starting a family. But with the American dream of homeownership having turned into a nightmare, nearly an entire generation of young people can’t buy a home and are delaying family formation because of it. 
And this isn’t simply theory – <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/monetary-policy-and-birth-rates-the-effect-of-mortgage-rate-pass-through-on-fertility.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">empirical research</a> published by Federal Reserve economists has already demonstrated that higher mortgage interest rates has a negative impact on the birth rate. That’s because those higher mortgage interest rates increase the cost of homeownership.
What caused this sad state of affairs? It was a deadly combination of impolitic public policies.
Since 2020, the federal government has been spending trillions of dollars it didn’t have, running massive deficits. The Federal Reserve covered these deficits by simply creating money for Congress to spend. That devalued the dollar, which fueled inflation as prices soared – including prices for housing.
But home prices got an extra boost from the Fed’s artificially low interest rates. What a homebuyer is really concerned about is the monthly payment on a home, not so much the home’s price. Lower interest rates allowed people to take on much larger mortgages for the same monthly payment, creating frenzied bidding wars for homes.
When interest rates finally rose to fight inflation, they pushed monthly mortgage payments through the roof, completely out of the reach of most Americans. It also trapped millions of Americans in their homes.
When a home is sold with a mortgage, the homeowner loses the loan and must get a new one, at current market rates. If someone bought a home just a few years ago, they are likely going from a 2-3% mortgage to a 7-8% one. That would cause their monthly payment to explode.
The options are to drastically downsize or not move at all — and millions have chosen the latter. That’s helped cause a severe shortage of homes for sale, the lowest level in decades. Consequently, home prices are staying high despite today’s higher interest rates.
While the failures of public policy are often measured in dollars, the unaffordability of housing today demonstrates that there can be even more far-reaching consequences: families never formed, and lives never lived.
* * * 
E.J. Antoni is a public finance economist at the <a href="https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heritage Foundation</a> and a senior fellow at the <a href="https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Committee to Unleash Prosperity</a>. 

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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