Joe Biden has a New Year’s resolution for the media: “Start reporting the right way” on the economy.
You would never guess from Biden’s admonition that news coverage of “Bidenomics” has been overwhelmingly positive—in fact, borderline sycophantic.
What Biden was upset about was the media noticing—with a patronizing glance—that voters are unhappy. And unfortunately for Biden, that’s just a fact.
Perhaps Biden can draw on his reserves of “decency” and “empathy” to put himself in the shoes of his subjects.
The average American doesn’t have a vacation home on the beach or a six-figure job that only requires a 30% attendance rate. The average American definitely doesn’t have a cadre of powerful cheerleaders to cover their mistakes when they screw up or millions of dollars from shady international business dealings.
The average American is living beyond their means to insulate themselves from the chaos of modern America.
The average American is wondering when prohibitive home prices and mortgage rates will begin to fall so they or their children can take the next step in life. The average American is competing with foreign laborers, who, thanks to Biden, are now pouring in at record rates to find work and stay off the streets. The average American senses the American dream is dying, and they know Biden isn’t making it any better.
Against this crushing reality, the Biden administration and its regime toadies have created pleasing fictions.
The press is full of breathless reports of the dawning prosperity that lies ahead. They say there is a thing called a “soft landing”—doesn’t that sound awfully nice?—which no one can define with any satisfaction—that is coming our way very shortly. The bad times of inflation will be over, and there will be no recession either—just in time for the election!
Gee! What are the odds?
The economy is not a collection of models and charts. The word economy is derived from Greek “oikos,” for household. The economy is about people. When regular people think the economy stinks, it probably does.
Everyone remembers how much better the Trump economy was. Prices have risen astronomically since then, and wages have not kept pace. More and more Americans are taking on a side hustle, burning through savings, racking up credit card debt, or raiding their retirement accounts to keep their heads above water.
That is the reality. The stuff about “Bidenomics” is propaganda.
Why, then, hasn’t consumer spending slowed down?
One answer is that the real pain hasn’t hit yet. This is not Weimar Germany, however striking the parallels may seem.
Another is that people like to buy things—to cope with stress or to show love to people they care about—even if they can’t really afford them. It isn’t wise, but it’s human nature.
Nobody, least of all the economic wizards who said inflation would be “transitory,” knows what 2024 will bring.
The best-case scenario, according to the wizards, is the so-called soft landing, which really means economic contraction. Everything will still be expensive, and there will be fewer jobs, but it won’t technically be a recession.
Some credible experts believe that a huge crash is ahead.
When the rest of the “experts” are predicting sunshine and rainbows, it pays to heed a pessimist.
More and more Americans feel like the country has no future because, increasingly, it doesn’t have one.
Our criminally negligent leaders are focused on their own self-preservation at the cost of the country and its welfare. Nobody represents the corruption of this class quite so well as Biden.
The economy poses a serious threat to Biden’s re-election, so it’s not surprising that he is upset by the media’s failure to deceive the people—or rather, the people’s failure to be deceived.
The lies coming from Biden and the press will come fast and furious in the coming months as the false promises of “Bidenomics” become more apparent.