I think fuel prices are really hurting the perception of the economy and that is the one thing Biden has some control over. Then things that are not included in the CPI like taxes especially property taxes, Medicaid and Medicare also help shape how people see the economy. When you go to Chik-fil-A and it cost over $50 to feed a family of four--people feel that.
Then you have investments. My family has lost over $300,000 from our 401k since 2021, it has grown about $150,000 in the last year, but we are still down $150,000.
When you compare 2023 to 2018 and 2019 when the economy was on fire, and companies were handing our bonus money to employees like candy, it can make it seem like things are not good.
Finally, unemployment is low but workforce participation is also low.
I am a little disappointed in this column. Most people who read this column probably have a similar lifestyle as you do and I think you fail to realize that the majority of the people in this country don't. Even the lower middle class people are getting hammered by gas and food prices. The math is simple; 10 gallons a week to drive to and from work = an extra $20 per week or $80 per month or $960 per year going into their gas tank versus 2 years ago. Like your father, I studied economics and it really is not that hard as long as you look at the whole picture. I admit that I am not a big fan of Paul Krugman because his views consistently come from the top looking down on those below him. He has gotten so far out of touch since he lives a good portion of his life somewhere in the Carribean. Reading old Thomas Sowell articles will give you a broader view from more angles about how the economy in good and bad times impact all people.
Well, Kirk, I give you credit for one major point. You at least acknowledge that Biden is not the one calling the shots. The media treats us like we are stupid and never mentions that.
That said, tell me one thing in your life that is as good as it was in 2019 when the alleged Trump incompetent sycophants were running the show. Food prices? Gas prices? Renting a car? Restaurant hours and service? Public safety? Military competence? Secure border? General level of service in a store? Credibility of the CDC and public health in general? I am not seeing anything.
I don't understand any love for Buttigieg. I would posit that he is so inept at his job that most Americans actually know the name of the Sec. of Transportation. I am not seeing much competence from the other alleged brainiacs in the Administration either.
Sure the economy looks great if you go to restaurants. It would look even greater if you went to an exclusive resort and saw all the people spending thousands of dollars milling about with others in similar circumstances. Extrapolate that to the entire population and bizness is BOOMIN'!
But consider how many small family businesses shut down between 2020 and 2022 never to reopen. Food prices such as meat remain much higher. Gasoline costs 70% more in my area than it did three years ago. Krugman pulls out statistics that fit his narrative that people really don't know there how the cost of living is impacting their daily lives. He does. Now some other economist with a different political agenda will give different statistics that show how bad the economy is.
Government statisticians manipulate the data to fit their needs. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count people who have given up looking for a job in their unemployment figures. This is not science. It is manipulating data to fit a political agenda - democrat, republican, liberal or conservative.
August 1995. Spent 4+ years working in Germany. About 20 of us drove from Frankfurt to Mannheim for an outdoor Stones concert. My first and only Stones concert. Was amazing. Probably 100k very tall Germans. Music was great. Mick never stopped moving. Keep doing what you love boys!
Draft Kings stock has tripled since Jan... people are literally throwing money away on the over under for the first five minutes of the Jacksonville State v Troy State game.... yet the economy stinks
While you can't argue your points on the economy, the only thing we are certain of is I used to pay $150 a week in groceries and now it $240 and it cost me $60 to fill my tank when it used to cost half that. Just a few short year ago. We no longer attend the 8-12 concerts a year because they are all over $100 for the top row seats and drinking beer at those events now require you to co-sign for a round. I guess it impacts everyone differently.
Doc, Totally with you on the Economy. Seems people believe what they hear rather than what they see. Restaurants packed, Lotsa newer cars on the road. and my pick-up truck index says that this economy is blooming. Believe what you see, not what THEY are telling you.
I took a pay cut when I left the military many years ago. We are Kraft Mac&Cheese and Tina casserole many a night. Fast forward, we are comfortable and retired. My car is 11 years old. We stopped buying THINGS. Still have money for baseball games and golf with my son. There are people really struggling. Also a lot of people who struggle while spending extravagantly.
Saw today that the former president is saying he’d give companies and rich people more tax cuts if elected. It’s a crazy world.
My Q brother complains about Biden and economy constantly. After one extensive rant, the next day he posted a picture of his $300 64oz porterhouse steak and the cheese he had shipped in from Italy. All this while sitting in the dining room of his LakeHouse (house #2). Sipping a $110+ bottle of wine. But he can’t retire yet because of Biden. Go figure.
"Poverty Rate Soared in 2022 as Aid Ended and Prices Rose
The increase in poverty reversed two years of large declines. Median income, adjusted for inflation, fell 2.3 percent to $74,580." - New York Times, September 12, 2023
Brute Force Cybernetics - The company that creates a need and then fills it.
White House economic team - created inflation then claimed credit when inflation eased from record highs.
But all is good according to the two Pauls.
Paul Krugman wrote in 1998, “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”
I think fuel prices are really hurting the perception of the economy and that is the one thing Biden has some control over. Then things that are not included in the CPI like taxes especially property taxes, Medicaid and Medicare also help shape how people see the economy. When you go to Chik-fil-A and it cost over $50 to feed a family of four--people feel that.
Then you have investments. My family has lost over $300,000 from our 401k since 2021, it has grown about $150,000 in the last year, but we are still down $150,000.
When you compare 2023 to 2018 and 2019 when the economy was on fire, and companies were handing our bonus money to employees like candy, it can make it seem like things are not good.
Finally, unemployment is low but workforce participation is also low.
When you want to appeal to authority, but all you can find is Paul Krugman... 😬
I'm an Analytics Engineer. I look at baseball analytics sideways. Welcome to the party.
I am a little disappointed in this column. Most people who read this column probably have a similar lifestyle as you do and I think you fail to realize that the majority of the people in this country don't. Even the lower middle class people are getting hammered by gas and food prices. The math is simple; 10 gallons a week to drive to and from work = an extra $20 per week or $80 per month or $960 per year going into their gas tank versus 2 years ago. Like your father, I studied economics and it really is not that hard as long as you look at the whole picture. I admit that I am not a big fan of Paul Krugman because his views consistently come from the top looking down on those below him. He has gotten so far out of touch since he lives a good portion of his life somewhere in the Carribean. Reading old Thomas Sowell articles will give you a broader view from more angles about how the economy in good and bad times impact all people.
And those that do not pay taxes have a heckofa lot more.
Well, Kirk, I give you credit for one major point. You at least acknowledge that Biden is not the one calling the shots. The media treats us like we are stupid and never mentions that.
That said, tell me one thing in your life that is as good as it was in 2019 when the alleged Trump incompetent sycophants were running the show. Food prices? Gas prices? Renting a car? Restaurant hours and service? Public safety? Military competence? Secure border? General level of service in a store? Credibility of the CDC and public health in general? I am not seeing anything.
I don't understand any love for Buttigieg. I would posit that he is so inept at his job that most Americans actually know the name of the Sec. of Transportation. I am not seeing much competence from the other alleged brainiacs in the Administration either.
Sure the economy looks great if you go to restaurants. It would look even greater if you went to an exclusive resort and saw all the people spending thousands of dollars milling about with others in similar circumstances. Extrapolate that to the entire population and bizness is BOOMIN'!
But consider how many small family businesses shut down between 2020 and 2022 never to reopen. Food prices such as meat remain much higher. Gasoline costs 70% more in my area than it did three years ago. Krugman pulls out statistics that fit his narrative that people really don't know there how the cost of living is impacting their daily lives. He does. Now some other economist with a different political agenda will give different statistics that show how bad the economy is.
Government statisticians manipulate the data to fit their needs. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count people who have given up looking for a job in their unemployment figures. This is not science. It is manipulating data to fit a political agenda - democrat, republican, liberal or conservative.
These days when I listen to someone talk I can tell in less than a minute if they watch Fox or MSNBC.
August 1995. Spent 4+ years working in Germany. About 20 of us drove from Frankfurt to Mannheim for an outdoor Stones concert. My first and only Stones concert. Was amazing. Probably 100k very tall Germans. Music was great. Mick never stopped moving. Keep doing what you love boys!
Draft Kings stock has tripled since Jan... people are literally throwing money away on the over under for the first five minutes of the Jacksonville State v Troy State game.... yet the economy stinks
While you can't argue your points on the economy, the only thing we are certain of is I used to pay $150 a week in groceries and now it $240 and it cost me $60 to fill my tank when it used to cost half that. Just a few short year ago. We no longer attend the 8-12 concerts a year because they are all over $100 for the top row seats and drinking beer at those events now require you to co-sign for a round. I guess it impacts everyone differently.
Doc, Totally with you on the Economy. Seems people believe what they hear rather than what they see. Restaurants packed, Lotsa newer cars on the road. and my pick-up truck index says that this economy is blooming. Believe what you see, not what THEY are telling you.
I took a pay cut when I left the military many years ago. We are Kraft Mac&Cheese and Tina casserole many a night. Fast forward, we are comfortable and retired. My car is 11 years old. We stopped buying THINGS. Still have money for baseball games and golf with my son. There are people really struggling. Also a lot of people who struggle while spending extravagantly.
Saw today that the former president is saying he’d give companies and rich people more tax cuts if elected. It’s a crazy world.
My Q brother complains about Biden and economy constantly. After one extensive rant, the next day he posted a picture of his $300 64oz porterhouse steak and the cheese he had shipped in from Italy. All this while sitting in the dining room of his LakeHouse (house #2). Sipping a $110+ bottle of wine. But he can’t retire yet because of Biden. Go figure.
"Poverty Rate Soared in 2022 as Aid Ended and Prices Rose
The increase in poverty reversed two years of large declines. Median income, adjusted for inflation, fell 2.3 percent to $74,580." - New York Times, September 12, 2023
Brute Force Cybernetics - The company that creates a need and then fills it.
White House economic team - created inflation then claimed credit when inflation eased from record highs.
But all is good according to the two Pauls.
Paul Krugman wrote in 1998, “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”
Patience grasshoppa. It’s a coming. https://x.com/cejaykim/status/1701641354261193069?s=46&t=WmEl9maKkk80IpfW5j5CoQ