Economy Good Under Biden

There are plenty of social media meme’s being published right now asserting that things were better 4 years ago while Trump was in office. The reality is that while prices were lower for many things, that isn’t the whole picture. In fact some of the distortion comes from the collapse of the economy during the pandemic which caused many prices to go down due to lack of demand.

The United States added 303,000 jobs in March, the 39th straight month of growth. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent. There are 2.6 million more Americans employed today than there were at the previous peak in February 2020, just before the pandemic set in.

Another economic indicator is GDP. To be fair, rather than compare numbers from 2020 when the pandemic depressed everything let’s use 2019 instead. The fourth quarter of 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) was $21.9 trillion, in the fourth quarter of 2023 it was $27.96 trillion or an increase of more than 27%.

Mortgage rates which seem high are below rates from 1980 to 2010. We’re just spoiled by the rates since the sub-prime mortgage crisis that wrecked banks from 2008 to 2010. I well remember as I re-financed my mortgage in 2010 and shortened the term from 30 years to 15 years while only paying an extra $100 a month.

On April 1 of 2024 the national average for a gallon of gas was just under $3.64 and no one likes that. We must remember the price of anything is a result of the tension between supply and demand. The U.S. is both the number one producer and consumer of oil. Unlike most nations we produce more than we use. The price of gasoline is up because demand around the world is up and some of our oil is being sold to other countries. After adjusting for inflation gas was almost $4 a gallon back in 2007. Don’t let anyone tell you that the high price of gas is Joe Biden’s fault.

For those invested in the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard and Poor’s 500 indexes are both now at historic highs due to record profits. As a reminder those profits are a significant cause of the inflation mentioned earlier. Let’s call it greed-flation.

If you’re going to complain about the high price of groceries and gas you should also complain about the fact that minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour and many better paying jobs haven’t seen pay increases even as businesses see record profits. While it’s true that over the last 12 months wages have risen nearly 2% more than inflation each month, over the previous 2 years inflation was higher than wage increases so we have some catching up to do. Now remember who controls the state government in Texas, its Republicans, and they have zero interest in raising minimum wage regardless of how high prices rise. Republicans also control the House in our federal legislature and those folks also refuse to raise the minimum wage.

If you want to place blame for high prices, put that blame where it belongs, greedy businesses raising prices to increase profits while not raising wages to keep up and Republican politicians who think the same minimum wage from 2009 is appropriate today even though total inflation since then has been over 43%.

You have an opportunity to fix the imbalance between corporate profits and wages by electing Democrats to all levels of government this November.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 10, 2024