President Biden has his sights set on a second term in the White House. There’s a big problem with that.
Because the Biden administration has confirmed really bad news for Mr. Biden.
In the opinion of the American public, the two biggest problems of the Biden administration so far have been their awful foreign policy and fiscal policy, both of which have devastating consequences for the future.
A poor economy, in particular, can sink any President incumbent seeking a second term as history has shown time and again. That’s one of the major reasons why Joe Biden’s approval ratings have been underwater for two years now.
Inflation, in particular, has been the biggest pain point for the financial outlook of the average American, as it seems like everything just keeps getting more and more expensive with no end in sight.
It appeared like inflation was finally starting to get under control after the federal reserve had basically sacrificed the home-buying market and manufactured a housing crisis with endless federal reserve interest rate increases. Though that was short lived compared to the regular inflation increases.
The latest reports from the executive branch of the government show that inflation is back on the rise for the second straight month.
In the 12-month period ending in August, inflation ticked up yet again to 3.7% over the month of July. The biggest factor in this was the rise of gas prices over the past several weeks.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed this news on Wednesday, contradicting the claims of the Biden administration that inflation is getting “better” and that the federal reserve’s efforts of regular interest rate hikes are working.
According to the statistics, gas prices rose about 10% from the month of July to the month of August on average, which leads the inflation increase of prices during that period.
The only “good” sign that can be taken out of this is that what is considered “core” inflation did in fact have a drop down to 4.3%, which is better than previous months. Core inflation takes out factors such as food and energy prices, which both tend to be volatile. Though that’s still far off the mark of what is considered normal inflation.
Regardless of that one silver lining, the overall inflation is still nearly double the 2% goal that economists believe is most reasonable for a standard first-world nation economy.
The Biden administration continues to boast that their “Bidenomics” are working, despite these constant bad reports of inflation ravaging the American economy and the bank accounts of the average family.
They argue that the jobs market is as strong as ever because more and more jobs keep being added to the market. They even claim that they’ve created more jobs than any other President in history in the first term.
That’s a misleading claim, as economic experts have pointed out, because Joe Biden became President right near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic when those who were laid off were entering the workforce once again as companies would open positions up again.
When the jobs that were laid off due to COVID-19 economic fears are taken into account, the Joe Biden administration’s job creation numbers are actually slightly worse than that of Donald Trump at this point in his term that began in 2016.
If you expect the Biden administration to change tactics as it relates to the federal reserve’s interest rate increases, you may be wrong.
Greg McBride, the CFA (chief financial analyst) for the $400 million company Bankrate, has said that it’s very possible that another interest rate hike will arrive before the end of 2023.
“The Federal Reserve is poised to hold interest rates steady at their meeting next week, but there are still some concerns within this CPI report — gasoline prices, motor vehicle insurance, maintenance, and repair — that the Fed won’t dispel the idea of an additional interest rate hike before year-end,” Mr. McBride argues.
Simply put, time is running out for Joe Biden to address the issues in the American economy and turn things around before the 2024 election cycle is in full swing. If he can’t do that, he may very well kiss the White House goodbye.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
