FiveThirtyEight does a piece on the trouble the American inflation has Joe Biden in….
Forget all the Economy is doing good stuff….
That don’t matter…
People are spending MORE money for the same things that cost less a year ago….
THAT IS the issue for them…
And Biden and Democrats…
It was the summer of 1979, and President Jimmy Carter was up against it. Americans were paying far more for gas and groceries than they were the year before, and Carter was confronted with a choice: He could tell Americans that this was a problem the government could fix, or he could tell them to tighten their belts and persevere. He chose the latter. But prices continued to rise, and in 1980, Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in a landslide.
Things aren’t as bad as they were in 1979, but for many, the comparison is still apt. According to the latest consumer price index1 numbers, prices in November were up 6.9 percent compared with a year ago, the highest increase since 1982. And that comes alongside near-record-low consumer sentiment and a net approval rating for President Biden of -7.6 percentage points.2 Biden has said reversing inflation is a priority for his administration, and he has released strategic reserves of oil and announced plans to “relieve bottlenecks” to address soaring prices, but a difficult and uncertain road lies ahead….
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Inflation’s unique place in the American psyche is bad for presidents
Inflation occupies a unique place in American life. That’s in part because price increases can feel far more palpable than something like the government deficit; they’re also front and center for the average consumer. Add to that the power of political memory: The Great Inflation brought along four recessions from 1969 to 1982 and has had an indelible effect on our politics….
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Americans’ views of inflation are strongly shaped by politics
Though inflation affects all Americans, there’s a gulf in perception. In short, whether you share a party affiliation with the president likely looms large for just how bad you think inflation will get. That tracks more broadly with how Americans’ views on the economy increasingly have little to do with the economy itself; rather, they’re about who’s in office.
“When the president of your political party is in power, you tend to be more optimistic about how the economy will be and tend to have lower inflation expectations,” said Binder. “When a president whose politics you disagree with is in power, you tend to be more pessimistic about how the economy will be, and you’re going to have higher inflation expectations.”
Recent research has borne that out, too, finding that Americans expect significantly lower inflation when the party they support is in the White House. According to a 2019 paper, inflation expectations were higher in red states than in blue states when Barack Obama was in office, only for the positions to reverse when Donald Trump arrived…
…
Americans’ views of inflation are strongly shaped by politics
Though inflation affects all Americans, there’s a gulf in perception. In short, whether you share a party affiliation with the president likely looms large for just how bad you think inflation will get. That tracks more broadly with how Americans’ views on the economy increasingly have little to do with the economy itself; rather, they’re about who’s in office.
“When the president of your political party is in power, you tend to be more optimistic about how the economy will be and tend to have lower inflation expectations,” said Binder. “When a president whose politics you disagree with is in power, you tend to be more pessimistic about how the economy will be, and you’re going to have higher inflation expectations.”
Recent research has borne that out, too, finding that Americans expect significantly lower inflation when the party they support is in the White House. According to a 2019 paper, inflation expectations were higher in red states than in blue states when Barack Obama was in office, only for the positions to reverse when Donald Trump arrived…