ohh boy... Bidenomics...
519,000 part time labor hired at average income of $44,880.00 a year. 603,150 fired with average income of $106,000.00
I've looked at the numbers Blackman. The USA was the only major economy where the inflation rate jumped up in the first half of 2021. This was largely because we were the only major economy that was still providing massive stimulus in 2021, far in excess of the output gap which Lusty Lad and Texas Contrarian have discussed here before. The stimulus provided by Biden's American Rescue Plan.I don’t know that we disagree that much on this. Stimulus which began long before Biden was in office kept people purchasing goods which became a burden on the lagging supplies. And stimulus went on too long which just worsened that supply issue. Then along with stimulus, people not going back to work and the massive 8+% unemployment, particularly in companies and businesses important to managing the already burdened supply chain began to push up prices.
In fact, by the time inflation really kicked off in other countries, the Workingman had already lost about half of that 3.2% in purchasing power I described in the other post. That is, the price of goods and services as measured by the USA CPI increased by about 1.5% more than the increase in wages, BEFORE significantly higher inflation rates hit other developed countries, because of supply chain hang ups and the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
The bigger problem, related in no small part to Biden's American Rescue Plan, is the huge increase in our national debt since COVID started. Yeah, people needed help. But we went overboard. Trump, Biden and Democratic Congresses, moderated to some degree by Senate Republicans before 2021, ran the public debt up to 100% of GDP. The increase in the debt attributable to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was peanuts in comparison. And at least the corporate tax cuts associated with that made our companies competitive again and brought money corporations stashed overseas back to the USA.
This increase in the national debt is going to hurt us. Lusty Lad and Texas Contrarian have described why here in the past much better than I can.
In summary, Biden et al pumped a lot of money into the economy, and that's part of the reason why we're seeing what you noted in the OP. But what have we gotten in return? Public debt greater than 100% of GDP, and inflation higher than wages. That's a piss poor trade off.
OK, the rest of this post is a little off topic and kind of a gimme to WTF, if he reads it.
It would have been interesting if Hillary Clinton had been elected back in 2016. We might be better off. The national debt would almost certainly be lower as Congressional Republicans wouldn't have given her everything she wanted and vice versa. And the Republican Party would be stronger today. Trump's influence hurt the GOP in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections. Democrats wouldn't have controlled the Presidency, Senate and House in 2021 and 2022, and thus wouldn't have passed legislation for anywhere near the $5 trillion in additional unfunded spending that they did.
I don't think the vaccines would have gotten into peoples arms as quickly. And she wouldn't have lessened the regulatory burden on businesses like Trump did. But she might have worked with Ryan and McConnell to cut the corporate tax rate, down from what was the highest in the developed world. That was what Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich did with the capital gains tax, which like the 35% federal corporate rate, clearly was not in the best interest of the country. Originally Posted by Tiny
ohh boy... Bidenomics...See it's working... the middle class is being eliminated to be replaced by serfs. Besides that democrat math...they'll make it up in volume!
519,000 part time labor hired at average income of $44,880.00 a year. 603,150 fired with average income of $106,000.00 Originally Posted by BARE_IS_BEST
I don’t know that we disagree that much on this. Stimulus which began long before Biden was in office kept people purchasing goods which became a burden on the lagging supplies. And stimulus went on too long which just worsened that supply issue. Then along with stimulus, people not going back to work and the massive 8+% unemployment, particularly in companies and businesses important to managing the already burdened supply chain began to push up prices.Time will tell Blackman. A lot of economists think the probability of a recession is high this year or next.
If I recall, the American Rescue Plan was stimulus package number 3 so there were two prior under Trump. When the supplies ran out, in the early Biden year, prices rose. That’s not a Biden issue. It’s more a Trump/Biden spurred by Covid and the economic thinking originated by Trump/Navarro “the cure can’t be worse than the disease”.
Nonetheless, the current vast economic improvement is Bidenomics working just fine and with most things about back to normal, I expect by summer we should see some really amazing economic numbers. And a flailing GOP economic message. Originally Posted by 1blackman1
They said that last year and the one before as well. Could still happen but 3.5 unemployment makes it really difficult.Larry Summers, dean of Democratic Party economists, was on Fareed Zakaria last weekend. He was anything but sanguine. He said the low 3.4% unemployment rate would be temporary. But there was the risk that expectations for higher inflation would result in a long term inflation problem. I believe what he was saying was 3.4% unemployment is inconsistent with 2% annual inflation. Unemployment has to go up if inflation is to come down. And the Fed, correctly, will bring down inflation regardless of whether that causes a recession.
And though we here in the US only see the world through our lens. We are outperforming the rest of the world by every metric. We even have relative parity with the pound and euro. Anyone taking a big picture view of the economy knows we’re doing great compared to our contemporaries and are more likely to improve faster than everywhere else. Originally Posted by 1blackman1
A lot of economists think the probability of a recession is high this year or next. Originally Posted by Tiny
They said that last year and the one before as well. Could still happen but 3.5 unemployment makes it really difficult. Originally Posted by 1blackman1
And though we here in the US only see the world through our lens. We are outperforming the rest of the world by every metric... we’re doing great compared to our contemporaries and are more likely to improve faster than everywhere else. Originally Posted by Tiny
Part of the reason for the current low level of unemployment is because people dropped out of the workforce during COVID and haven’t come back. Or just came back part time. Originally Posted by TinyThat's correct. The (pre-COVID) labor force participation rate at the start of 2020 was 63.3% versus 62.4% last month. The difference may not sound like a lot, but it translates into almost 2.5 million American workers who have dropped out of the labor force and not returned.
Larry Summers, dean of Democratic Party economists, was on Fareed Zakaria last weekend. He was anything but sanguine. He said the low 3.4% unemployment rate would be temporary. But there was the risk that expectations for higher inflation would result in a long term inflation problem. I believe what he was saying was 3.4% unemployment is inconsistent with 2% annual inflation. Unemployment has to go up if inflation is to come down. And the Fed, correctly, will bring down inflation regardless of whether that causes a recession.Now you’re just starting to tout the Fox News line. I’ve seen no evidence that people are coming back part-time. Wages are up which actually counters that theory. Job creation numbers also don’t support the “people aren’t going back to work” claims on Fox. Maybe we’ll get some job participation numbers by year end that might shed some light on that.
It’s curious though that we had a couple of years of very low unemployment and low inflation just before COVID. I’d attribute part of the reason to lower corporate tax rates from January, 2018 forward, and to Trump’s lighter regulatory hand, which improved business conditions and the demand for labor.
Part of the reason for the current low level of unemployment is because people dropped out of the workforce during COVID and haven’t come back. Or just came back part time.
Maybe Lusty Lad will weigh in now that he’s back. He knows a lot more about this than I do. Originally Posted by Tiny
Now you’re just starting to tout the Fox News line. I’ve seen no evidence that people are coming back part-time. Originally Posted by 1blackman1Why don't you try looking it up?
I love how you keep falling back on the Trump tax cuts. How about the Trump deficit spending. Unlike his predecessor, the Trump years even before Covid we (had) deficits annually. So he cut taxes and propped up the economy by not paying for his spending. If you wanna understand the Trump economy that’s it for you right there. At least Obama was able to pay for the money he spent and had low and negative deficits. Originally Posted by 1blackman1Oh dear! You just shot yourself (and your credibility) in the foot. What is a "negative deficit"? No economist uses that term. Do you mean a SURPLUS? If so, you are as wrong as wrong can be!
Lusty remains on ignore... Originally Posted by 1blackman1Lol - I'm pretty sure the OP has peeked at all of my comments, but he won't admit it because then he would have to respond.