Post by the Scribe on Feb 15, 2024 11:17:53 GMT
Thousands of supply chains were broken under Trump and the GOP that led to runaway inflation that Biden then had to deal with. Add 8 trillion to the deficit and a 2 trillion revenue reducing tax break for Trump and his billionaire cronies that average Americans have to make up. One only need to look at a companies profits where you can to see that gouging and greedflation are alive and well. Ask Trump and the GOP HOW they intend to fix it...what is their plan? I guarantee you they have NO plan. They left a mess for Biden and the Dems to clean up just like BushCheney left a huge mess for ObamaBiden to clean up.
www.yahoo.com/finance/news/why-americans-pine-for-the-trump-economy-193757815.html
Rick Newman
Rick Newman·Senior Columnist
Wed, February 14, 2024 at 12:37 PM MST·4 min read
2.1k
In the years following Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, many Americans came to regard inflation as the economic equivalent of smallpox: a scourge largely eradicated.
It wasn’t, obviously. After a 30-year dormant period, inflation reemerged in 2021, becoming the biggest challenge of Joe Biden’s presidency. Inflation has now dropped far below its 2022 peak, but many prices that went up have stayed up, and Americans are peeved about food, rent, and transportation costs that seem to be taking a permanently bigger bite out of their paychecks.
The scarring effects of inflation have fueled a kind of nostalgia regarding Donald Trump’s presidency, from 2017 to 2021. In a recent NBC News poll, 40% of respondents said Trump’s presidency was better than expected, a higher portion saying so than when NBC asked the same question in 2018. Voters consistently say they trust Trump more than Biden on the economy, a crucial deficit for Biden given that the two men are vying for the presidency once again this year.
Fond recollections of the Trump economy aren't the same as a yearning for more of Trump, who led a chaotic response to the COVID pandemic, tried to overturn the 2020 election, and stoked the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol. But the pre-COVID Trump economy is now a baseline people measure Biden's performance against. Trump is running on his own economic record, and against Biden's, so the recent past matters in 2024.
Trump inherited a solid economy from President Obama, and the good times continued into 2020. Compared with today, there was no inflation to speak of. Voters who think their paychecks went further under Trump are generally right.
Read more: Inflation update on everyday expenses: Prescription drugs down, pet care way up
www.yahoo.com/finance/personal-finance/price-inflation-222903168.html
Pet ownership costs climb
Pet owners have also struggled under the weight of inflation as rising costs of food, veterinary care, and supplies continued to surge this past year.
Veterinarian services jumped 9.6% from a year ago in January 2024, the highest increase on record.
The uptick in costs over the past year caused some pet owners to delay visits to the veterinarian, according to data from the American Veterinary Medical Association. While vet practice revenue increased by an average 5.7% between August 2021 and August 2023, the number of clients fell 2.7%, suggesting that some clients have had to forego medical care for their pets.
Animal lovers saw other costs rise: Pet food increased 4.8% within the past 12 months, and the cost of pet supplies and accessories also registered an uptick of 0.5% from January 2023.
Overall, the cost of pet food is just over 23% higher compared to January 2020, the St. Louis Fed found, despite showing subtle signs of declining since October 2023.
www.yahoo.com/finance/personal-finance/price-inflation-222903168.html
Pet ownership costs climb
Pet owners have also struggled under the weight of inflation as rising costs of food, veterinary care, and supplies continued to surge this past year.
Veterinarian services jumped 9.6% from a year ago in January 2024, the highest increase on record.
The uptick in costs over the past year caused some pet owners to delay visits to the veterinarian, according to data from the American Veterinary Medical Association. While vet practice revenue increased by an average 5.7% between August 2021 and August 2023, the number of clients fell 2.7%, suggesting that some clients have had to forego medical care for their pets.
Animal lovers saw other costs rise: Pet food increased 4.8% within the past 12 months, and the cost of pet supplies and accessories also registered an uptick of 0.5% from January 2023.
Overall, the cost of pet food is just over 23% higher compared to January 2020, the St. Louis Fed found, despite showing subtle signs of declining since October 2023.
Under Trump, overall inflation was just 6.2% during this first three years. Under Biden, it was 17.9%. Rents rose 11.3% under Trump and 19.5% under Biden. Grocery inflation: 2.4% under Trump, 21% under Biden. Transportation, including the cost of vehicles, insurance, maintenance, and gasoline: Up 4.5% under Trump, and up 27.5% under Biden.
There are a couple of areas where inflation is actually lower under Biden than under Trump: healthcare, college tuition, and prescription drugs. That’s probably due to slacking demand for all three during COVID, which is a temporary factor not likely to last.
Real earnings, adjusted for inflation, have also been stronger under Biden. They’ve risen 15.4% in three years, compared with just 9.4% for Trump. Under Biden, however, inflation has risen 2.5 percentage points more than earnings, which means purchasing power is down. Under Trump, earnings outpaced inflation by 3.2 points, so purchasing power is up. This is the real advantage Trump has over Biden: People feel their money buys less than it did four years ago, and the data backs them up.
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Biden can’t refute that fact. What he can do when lobbying for his economic policies is try to convince people of three things: One, inflation wasn’t his fault, given that it was a global phenomenon driven largely by COVID-related shortages and disruptions. Two, things are getting better, not worse. And three, Biden’s economic plan will be better for voters in the future than Trump’s.
Skirting the blame for inflation will be tough. Biden’s campaign message is that greedy corporations are responsible for squeezing consumers, a claim some voters seem willing to accept. Yet inflation happened on Biden’s watch, and some voters think Biden’s hostility to fossil fuels and penchant for big spending set the stage for inflation. At this point, he seems unlikely to change many minds.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Coastal Carolina University, HTC Center, Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, in Conway, SC. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Revisionist history on the economy? Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Biden may have better luck persuading voters that things are getting better because they actually are. Inflation is down from 8.9% in 2022 to 3.1% now, and shoppers are starting to notice. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, which emphasizes inflation when polling respondents, has shot up during the last two months, largely because fears of future inflation are declining. Incomes are now rising by more than inflation, which means Americans will start to feel better off if the trend continues.
As for the best economic plan, Biden and Trump are both running on their records, which seems to favor Trump for those who prioritize economic issues. If inflation continues to abate, voters may give Biden more credit for a strong job market, a boom in factory construction, his efforts to ease student debt burdens, and his insistence that he’ll “finish the job” if voters give him another four-year term. Maybe voters will reminisce fondly about the Biden economy someday.
Read more about the latest inflation data and what it means for markets:
Inflation: Consumer prices rise 3.1% in January, defying forecasts for a faster slowdown
Hot inflation reading reinforces the Fed's cautious approach to rate cuts in 2024
US stocks fall after inflation cools less than anticipated
Cost of eating out continues to rise, a potential hit to restaurant chains
Gas prices fell last month on lower seasonal demand
CPI: A little good news for shelter costs?
Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @rickjnewman.
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