Bidenomics Delusion from the Media

July 13, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Bidenomics has been a failure, as measured by variables such as poverty, subsidies, inflation, protectionism, household income, fiscal policy, red tape, and employment.

But if asked to pick the most important problem for Biden (both politically and economically),my answer would be inflation-adjusted income.

Simply stated, American families are on a treadmill, struggling to have their incomes keep pace with inflation.

As illustrated by the chart, they have not been winning that contest.

But that isn’t stopping the supposed referees in the press from declaring victory for the president.

I wrote in February about the Washington Post grading Biden on a curve. Then I  wrote in May and also wrote in June about the New York Times doing the same thing.

Today, we’re going to look at a new example of bias from the Washington Post. White House economics reporter Jeff Stein has a story asking why Biden is not getting credit for a “booming” economy.

The inflation report released Thursday represented virtually everything the White House has been hoping to see for years. …Overall prices dropped on a monthly basis for the first time in four years… Democrats could fail to take advantage of a spate of economic news that would otherwise be expected to buoy the president’s electoral prospects. In addition to moderating inflation, the economy is set to grow by 2 percent in the second quarter this year. Wage growth is up, and the number of weekly jobless claims ticked down again to the lowest level since May…

“Democrats had a strategy for this campaign, and it was touting Biden’s accomplishments on the economy, which are becoming clearer by the day…,” said Dean Baker, a liberal economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank. “As long as there are concerns about Biden’s health, the economic news will not be front and center, no matter how good it is.”

…Democrats are bracing for the prospect that Trump could again inherit an economy they believe is booming due to the policies passed during their time in government.

With all this glowing analysis, a reader from another planet might wonder why Biden isn’t heading to a landslide victory, even with his problems with aging.

But that’s only because that extraterrestrial reader would be unaware that the author ignored the variable that matters most for voters – which is whether they enjoying more income or struggling to keep pace.

At this point, I normally would share income data from the Labor Department or Census Bureau to show that Biden has not done a good job with household income.

But perhaps it would be more convincing (at least for left-wing readers) to share data from unexpected sources. So here’s a tweet from a journalist at a left-leaning publication (Vox), citing data from a left-leaning source (Brookings Institution).

You can click here to peruse the details of the Brookings report.

But all you really need to know is that households – at best – have been treading water. That’s stagnation, not a boom.

P.S. Here’s a comparison of Reagan’s economy and Biden’s economy.

P.P.S. Criticizing Biden’s policies does not imply an endorsement of Trump’s policies. Indeed, many of Biden’s policies are identical (see here and here) to Trump’s policies.