Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian who teaches at Boston College. She writes a blog called “Letters from an American,” in which she brings historical perspective to current events. She posted this column yesterday about Joe Biden’s first year as President.
Joe Biden’s presidency is just over a year old.
Biden has embraced the old idea, established by the Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Republicans under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that in a democracy, the federal government has a responsibility to keep the playing field level for all. It must regulate business to maintain competition and prevent corporations from abusing their employees, protect civil rights, provide a basic social safety net, and promote infrastructure.
Our forty-sixth president came into office in the midst of crisis. The coronavirus pandemic had killed more than 407,000 Americans, and the previous president’s quest to radicalize voters in spring 2020 had led to angry mobs rejecting the preventive measures other countries took. The economy was bottoming out as the pandemic killed workers, discombobulated workplaces, and disrupted supply chains. And the previous president was so determined not to give up power that he had incited his followers to attack Congress and the U.S. Capitol during the formal ceremony acknowledging Biden’s victory.
Even after the horrors of that day, 147 members of the Republican Party doubled down on the lie that Trump had really won the election. And when the Democratic House impeached Trump for inciting the insurrection, ending our country’s 224-year tradition of a peaceful transition of power, Republican senators acquitted him.
Republican lawmakers’ support for the Big Lie indicated how they would approach Biden’s presidency. They stand diametrically opposed to Biden, rejecting Democrats’ vision of the federal government. They are eager to return power to the states to do as they will, recognizing that the end of federal regulation will give far more freedom to people of wealth and that the end of federal protection of civil rights will, in certain states, permit white evangelical Christians to reclaim the “traditional” society they crave.
Biden set out to use government to make people’s lives better and, apparently, believed that successful policies would bring enough Republicans behind his program to ease the country’s extreme partisanship.
He fought the pandemic by invoking the Defense Production Act, buying more vaccines, working with states to establish vaccine sites and transportation to them, and establishing vaccine centers in pharmacies across the country. Vaccinations took off, and he vowed to make sure that 70% of the U.S. adult population would have one vaccine shot and 160 million U.S. adults would be fully vaccinated by July 4th.
At the same time, Democrats passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to jump-start the economy by putting money into the pockets of ordinary Americans.The new law cut child poverty in half by putting $66 billion into 36 million households. It expanded access to the Affordable Care Act, enabling more than 4.6 million Americans who were not previously insured to get healthcare coverage and bringing the total covered to a record 13.6 million.
Money from those programs bolstered household savings and fired up consumer spending. By the end of the year, U.S. companies were showing 15% profit margins, higher than they have been since 1950. Companies reduced their debt, which translated to a strong stock market. In February, Biden’s first month in office, the jobless rate was 6.2%; by December it had dropped to 4.2%. This means that 4.1 million jobs were created in the Biden administration’s first year, more than were created in the 12 years of the Trump and George W. Bush administrations combined.
Then, in November, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that will repair bridges and roads and get broadband to places that still don’t have it.
U.S. economic output jumped more than 7% in the last three months of 2021. Overall growth for 2021 should be about 6%, and economists predict growth of around 4% in 2022—the highest numbers the U.S. has seen in decades, and higher than any other country in the world. Despite the increased spending, the federal budget deficit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 dropped 33% from that of 2021. The downside of this growth was inflation of up to 7%, but this is a global problem and exactly why it’s happening is unclear—increased spending has created pent-up demand, and prices have been unstable because of the pandemic.
Biden reoriented U.S. foreign policy to defend democracy. He immediately took steps to rejoin the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords, and he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked hard to rebuild the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and to replace our outdated focus on combating terrorism on the ground with combating it by defunding terrorists. Biden ended the unpopular 20-year war in Afghanistan and negotiated the exit of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, where we had been for more than 18 years. About 2500 U.S. personnel remain alongside their Iraqi counterparts to hold back remaining ISIS terrorists.
The end of those wars has also given Biden the room virtually to eliminate the U.S. use of drone strikes and airstrikes. In Trump’s first 11 months he authorized more than 1600 airstrikes; Biden has significantly tightened the process of authorization and has authorized 4.
Instead of focusing on soldiers, Biden dramatically increased the use of economic sanctions on international criminals and prosecutions for international criminal behavior to stop the flow of money to terrorists. Biden’s Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, also helped to hammer out an international minimum tax that will help to close foreign tax shelters.
Biden is turning to these financial tools and the strength of NATO to try to stop another Russian incursion into Ukraine. He has warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that military aggression into a sovereign country will lead to crippling economic backlash, and U.S. ally Germany has put off approval of the valuable Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline Russia has constructed to Europe, worth tens of billions of dollars.
By any historical measure, Biden’s first year has been a roaring success, proving that democracy can, in fact, provide better lives for its people and can protect the rule of law internationally. And yet Biden’s popularity hovers in the low 40s.
Biden’s worldview demands that government accomplish things; the Republicans simply have to say no. They have focused on stopping Biden and the success of his view of government, and because it is only the Democrats who are in the arena, as President Theodore Roosevelt put it, Democrats are bearing the weight of popular discontent.
When the withdrawal from Afghanistan initially produced chaos as the Afghan government collapsed, Republicans hammered on the idea that Biden—and by extension a Democratic government—was incompetent. His numbers began to plummet, and the subsequent success of the largest human airlift in history did not change that narrative.
If Afghanistan happened organically, criticism of government could also be manufactured. In July, as the vaccination program appeared to be meeting Biden’s goals, Republicans began to insist that government vaccine outreach was government tyranny. Vaccination rates began to drop off just as the contagious Delta variant began to rage. When Biden tried to address the falling vaccination rates by requiring that federal workers and contractors, health care workers, and workers at businesses with more than 100 employees be vaccinated or frequently tested, Republicans railed that he was destroying American freedom.
Their argument took hold: by early December, 40% of Republican adults were unvaccinated, compared with fewer than 10% of adult Democrats, making Republicans three times more likely than Democrats to die of Covid. Rather than ending and giving Biden a historical success, the pandemic has continued on, weakening the economy and sparking chaos over masks and school reopenings as Republicans radicalize. Just last week, a woman in Virginia threatened to come to her child’s school with “every single gun loaded and ready” if the school board required masks.
That radicalization, stoked by Republican leaders, is at the point of destroying, once and for all, the idea of a government that works for the people. Republican leaders have stood by as Trump and his lackeys goaded followers into believing that Democratic governance is illegitimate and that Democrats must be kept from power. Following a playbook Republicans have used since 1994, Trump and his loyalists insisted—and continue to insist—on ongoing “audits” of the 2020 vote, knowing that seeing such “investigations” in the news would convince many voters that there must be something there, just as the 2016 ruckus over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails convinced many Americans that she had done something illegal.
It has worked. Although there is zero evidence of significant voter fraud, so far, 19 Republican-dominated states have passed 33 laws to make it harder for Democrats to vote, or to turn over the counting of votes to partisan Republicans. When Democrats tried to stop such a takeover of our democracy, all 50 Republicans in the Senate opposed federal protection of the right to vote. (Two Democrats joined them in refusing to overrule the filibuster, thus dooming the law to fail.) Now Republicans in three states have proposed election police forces to stop what they continue to insist—without evidence—are voting crimes.
And so, at the end of Biden’s first year—a year that by any standard must be called a success—Republicans are at the verge of achieving, at least for now, the end of the liberal democracy Americans have enjoyed since FDR and the Democrats embraced it in the 1930s, instead eroding the federal government and turning power over to the states.
In a two-hour press conference at the end of his first year, Biden said he did not anticipate the degree of obstruction he would face, and he expressed regret that he hadn’t “been able to…get my Republican friends to get in the game of making things better in this country….” “Think about this,” he said, “What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that Senate Republicans will offer no legislative agenda before the 2022 elections and that he is “100 percent” focused “on stopping” Biden.
From the other side, Biden’s inaugural committee is celebrating the president’s first year in office with a video narrated by actor Tom Hanks in which ordinary Americans try to reclaim an older vision of an America in which we worked together for the good of all. They talk about how in the past year more than 200 million Americans have been vaccinated, how we have created more jobs in 2021 than in any year in the previous 80, how we lifted children out of poverty and are rebuilding roads and bridges, and how, historically, America is strong, courageous, resilient, and optimistic and can do anything, if only we will work together.
—
Notes:
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57667
https://www.wabe.org/kemp-says-3b-budget-boost-will-bring-a-lot-of-good-things/
https://theweek.com/foreign-policy/1007579/biden-nearly-ended-the-drone-war-and-nobody-noticed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/07/republicans-big-lie-trump/
https://www.axios.com/mcconnell-no-agenda-midterms-91c73112-0a2e-441b-b713-7e8aa2dad6bf.html
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-sorbonne-paris-france-citizenship-republic
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The only thing necessary for the triumph
of wrong is for the “good” to do nothing,
that stops it.
You can’t do the right thing until you stop
the wrong thing.
The proof of a strategy is revealed in
the results (change or no change).
What part of “logic” is doing (using)
the same strategy over and over again
and expecting different results?
How can wrong be stopped without
considering the strategic value
(change or no change) of actions
taken to date?
Isn’t understanding what stops
wrong and what doesn’t stop
wrong, central to improvement?
It ain’t what we don’t know
about wrong, that causes trouble.
It’s what we keep doing that
doesn’t stop it.
“In a two-hour press conference at the end of his first year, Biden said he did not anticipate the degree of obstruction he would face, and he expressed regret that he hadn’t “been able to…get my Republican friends to get in the game of making things better in this country….” “Think about this,” he said, “What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for.””
Biden himself (along with Pelosi and other Democrats) says we need a strong Republican party. So which is it? In any case, one of the main reasons we “had” to pick Biden over Bernie was that Biden allegedly had the experience and know-how to “reach across the aisle to get things done.” How could he not have anticipated “the degree of obstruction he would face”? Has he not been in government for nearly 50 years? Was he not Obama’s vice president? So, what, was he lying to us? Wow, what a shocker that would be.
Among the other reasons we “had” to vote for Biden were (a) judges and (b) saving the Post Office. With regards to (a), Biden just re-appointed Trumper judge Jennifer Rearden, the Chevron lawyer who prosecuted Steven Donziger for the the “crime” of fighting pollution in the Amazon region https://www.directleft.com/p/donziger-bidens-nomination-of-trump?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODgwNTI2MSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDc0ODk4MzAsIl8iOiJtMlpGSyIsImlhdCI6MTY0Mjk1Nzg1MCwiZXhwIjoxNjQyOTYxNDUwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNjI3MDA1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.NRHWSFL7hIoCscilJJhUkgxV1CoBIM0RbgQw1KdkOyU . With respect to (b), Biden appointed Post Office Board members who re-confirmed Louis DeJoy. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Biden has been an avid supporter of privatizing all government services, including Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, all of which he is working on as we speak.
As for the “cutting child poverty in half” claim, that was dependent on raising the minimum wage to $15, which obviously did not happen. Sure, households have gotten their child tax credits, but that program has ended, so does that mean Biden has returned those kids to poverty? Incidentally, many people will owe those credits back at tax time. Also incidentally, “raising” a family of four out of poverty means they now bring in more than $26,500/year. Do any of you think you could survive on that? Do you really think that’s not poverty? If so, you are welcome to try it.
And we can excoriate Trump for his 407,000 COVID deaths and, yes, he handled the pandemic abysmally. But what has Biden done differently, besides vaccine distribution, which was already in process? Did he shut anything down? Did he provide stimulus payments to encourage people to stay home? Did he close schools? Or did he just, like Trump, push to open the country for the sake of the “economy”? Did he provide masks like he said he would? I suppose we’re supposed to be grateful that after a year we’re finally getting 4 free home tests per address, regardless of whether your household is 1, 2, 4 or 10 people. Not to mention those who don’t have addresses. If 407,000 COVID deaths is shameful (and it is), what do you call the 450,000+ since then, and the current daily new cases in the high six figures and deaths at 2,500+ per day? I know what you would all be saying if Trump were still in power, because I was around when he was in power. So why has your tune changed so radically? Surely it’s not just partisan, is it?
Meanwhile, a non-comprehensive list of Biden’s broken promises:
No public option
No lowering of Medicare age
No canceling of student loans
Kids still in cages (more of them, in fact)
Wall still being built
More deporations
More drilling permits (he said he would end all new permits)
No $2,000 stimulus checks (don’t tell me that $1,400 = $2,000 – that was not the promise)
Did not release vaccine patents to make vaccines available world-wide
Has not decriminalized marijuana (in fact, he fired several staff members for past use, even though they had been told that wouldn’t matter)
Has not eliminated racist mandatory minimum sentences (in fact, he originated them in his Crime Bills and he has expanded Trump’s expansion
Has not eliminated Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. In fact, the infrastructure bill contained more.
Has not welcomed more refugees like he said he would. In fact, his vice president said, and I quote, “Do not come. Do not come.” He also re-affirmed Trump’s “stay in Mexico” policy that he once excoriated Trump for
Continued Trump’s “Muslim ban” after promising to end it
Has done nothing to stop the Saudi genocide in Yemen. In fact, we are still supplying weapons, some of which were used in this week’s attack on a hospital and Yemen’s internet system.
Has not punished the Saudis for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Has not re-joined the Iran deal
Has not improved relations with Cuba (in fact, the U.S. has intensified efforts to overthrow Castro by pretending that the Cuban people are revolting against him; a U.S. fanned protest attracted a few hundred people – the following day, many thousands of people showed up in support of Castro (the U.S. media, shockingly, did not report that))
Has not stopped the militarization of the police force – in fact, he has increased it
Has not stopped standardized testing – in fact, continuing to push for them
Has not cut prison population in half – in fact, has increased it, even though it’s highly unsafe to pack that many people together during a pandemic
Has not codified Roe v. Wade into law. Instead he’s standing “helplessly” by as the Republican Supreme Court whittles it down to nothing
But with all that said, he has, in fact, kept his most important campaign promise to his most important constituents: Nothing has fundamentally changed.
BTW, all of the above is documented if you can manage to look beyond mainstream news sources, but WordPress makes posting multiple links problematic. If even once you would try to actually verify what the MSM is telling you, you’d never go back.
Who know the Windy City meant production of windbags filled with hot air? Basic civics lesson: the American president is not an absolute monarch. Yet. You’re likely betting on a winning horse, so you’ll get one soon. Also, loved the Republican-funded source below!
shorter dienne77:
“You voted for Biden and all you got was a little democracy. Worthless.”
It’s crazy because during the 2020 election no one ever thought that the Senate would even be a 50-50 split. We all assumed that Mitch McConnell would still control the Senate.
I would like to see Biden have the next 2 years with a big Democratic majority. dienne77 seems to want to blame only the Democrats for why things aren’t getting done. The Republicans are blameless.
“You voted for Biden and all you got was a little democracy. Worthless.”
LOL.
“one of the main reasons we “had” to pick Biden over Bernie was that Biden allegedly had the experience and know-how to “reach across the aisle to get things done.” Yet another lie, but a lie that reveals the implicit racism in so much of what this person posts.
The implicit racism that should tell the rest of us that there is a reason that she was never bothered as much by Trump as the rest of us, but was extremely bothered that African American voters wouldn’t do what white progressives wanted them to.
I have yet to see anyone call out this blatant lie so I will take a chance on being attacked once again by pointing out how pernicious and dangerous it is to let a person post blatant lies here because mixed in with dienne77’s lies are some truthful statements. Mixed in with Trump’s lies are some truthful statements.
Propaganda always has some truths mixed in with lies.
dienne77 lives in a fantasy world created by right wing Republican propaganda and she posts here to amplify their message to appeal to white self-described progressives who don’t really mind Trump that much and who believe their votes as white self-described progressives should be given special weight.
The reality is that people voted for a variety of candidates in the democratic primary, including 2 progressive candidates, Bernie and Elizabeth Warren.
Biden was not particularly popular in the early voting, which included many states where the white composition of the Democratic primary electorate was high. Other candidates were, including another progressive candidate Elizabeth Warren, with Bernie getting the most votes.
Biden came out ahead because he had the support of African American voters who comprised a higher share of primary votes in southern states.
dienne77 seems to be using nasty racist innuendo to imply that these voters whose support is the main reason that Biden ended up receiving more primary votes should not have been allowed to vote their preference because their preference was due to them being deluded, unlike white people like dienne77 who knows better.
No one ever said we “had” to vote for Biden over Bernie. African American voters in southern states made Biden their first choice for a variety of perfectly legitimate reasons, among them a real fear that allowing Trump to win again — while perfectly fine for privileged white folks like dienne77 — was not fine with them.
But, for the record, lots of people were certainly saying that we had to vote for Biden over TRUMP. dienne77 was not one of them.
I wonder if a lying public school hater who was posting a few truths about public schools, mixed in with blatant lies about how evil or corrupt public school teachers were, would be treated with the same credibility and respect afforded this lying democrat hater.
Is it just my perception or am I truly seeing the Republicans block almost every effort by President Biden to make things better for all of us? It also seems that what the Republicans don’t block one of the courts do….could it be that many of them are stacked with Trump appointees?
Here’s a Twitter thread addressing the above claims:
Ha! I knew that praise of Biden would get your attention!
When I saw the headline, that was my first thought. ROFL!!!!
77
fyi- the readers of the blog know Republicans will usher in fascism.
We know the GOP package- sexism, racism, Putin allegiance and corruption.
Anything noteworthy to say that’s not Biden bashing would be appreciated.
The Republican Party of today should change its name to the Fascist Party.
Six of one, half a dozen of another.
In response to d-77. Who the hell ever said that Biden was the messiah or the Savior of the planet. When it came down to a choice between Biden or Trump the Terrible, no contest, Biden got my vote, even with all his imperfections. I voted for Obama and his record on education was abysmal but he did appoint Kagan and Sotomayor to the SCOTUS, huge pluses. Biden has more pluses than negatives especially when compared to the alternative.
Yes, Biden did re-nominate Jennifer Rearden which is bad. But………..
Biden also nominated Nancy Abudu — the 11th Circuit nominee — who currently works for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Biden’s nominee for the D.C. Circuit — Judge Michelle Childs — who leans liberal.
The president already has one judge confirmed on the D.C. Circuit, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson also leaning progressive and liberal.
You are both on my “Must Read” List every day. And my thanks to both of you.
Maybe this woman’s heart is in the right place, but the economic analysis here would be pathetic even if she were working as a press secretary for the Biden administration. Touting historic “job creation” numbers that are simply a meager rebound from the worst job-loss numbers in history is really weak. And talk about burying the lede on 7% inflation.
In all seriousness, did anyone here pause when they read those points? Just checking to see if there are any signs of independent thought left here.
“woman’s heart” – It’s the job of U.S. intelligence to review the Russian
propaganda/disinformation network in the U.S. (not blog readers). Trump attempted to discredit and dismantle U.S. intelligence e.g. Fiona Hill and Vindemann. The world is fortunate that Biden was elected.
If I am in error, dienne 77 can prove me wrong by writing about her opposition to Tucker Carlson’s support for Putin, her opposition to Russian troops at Ukraine’s border, etc.
Linda
D-77 can’t prove you wrong, Vlad and Tuck have the same “religiofascist” world view. Not that I suspect that either one of them gives a darnn what God thinks. As well as many on the religious right. Well then for that matter very few of any persuasion care what God would think. As long as “the despot,(is) abetting (their) abuses”
Joel
That’s why Harvard’s Leadership Institute for Faith and Education is highly problematic. It was created in 2017 with a former Gates’ exec. at the helm. One quote on the home page echoes Paul Weyrich’s belief, parallel faith-inspired and secular human service organizations are redundant (taxpayers have made Catholic organizations, the U.S.’s 3rd largest employer). A second quote calls for faith initiatives to align with public schools. First, harvard encouraged faculty like the Gates-funded Roland Fryer to drive ed reform. And now, Harvard gives credibility to the notion that public schools should work in tandem with self-appointed, God-driven (so they claim) partners.
I paused. The writer seemed to interpret everything in a favorable light toward Biden. I voted for him and was very excited about him, but I have been disappointed, especially with the poor Afghanistan pullout and his unfulfilled education promises. And his team has lost credibility in inflation and Covid predictions and responses.. I feel like he needs better advisors and more thoughtfulness. But he did believe in weapons of mass destruction that never existed, as I recall, so maybe I should’ve seen this coming.
Biden has not been the SuperGuy we hoped for, but I’ll take him any day over Trump. What a pleasure not to wake up to insane, racist tweets. What a pleasure to go for days without thinking about the President.
What a pleasure to know that this President is not in bed with Putin.
What a pleasure to know that this President doesn’t think that White supremacists are good people.
What a pleasure to know this President won’t orchestrate a coup, making the country a dictatorship.
What a pleasure to know that this President rejoined the Paris Accord on climate.
I agree that Biden has not been the SuperGuy we hoped for, but he has been more than I expected. I also hoped that Trump would be a SuperGuy, even if I didn’t expect it.
However, I am bothered when I see Montana teacher repeat right wing talking points as if there is some truth to them.
“poor Afghanistan pullout”
What does that even mean? How is safely evacuating well over 100,000 civilians even close to being “poor”?
Invoking the idea that the withdrawal was “poor” begs the question “compared to what?”
Should those 100,000 civilians been left in Afghanistan as the Trump plan called for? I never heard anyone advocate for a withdrawal that required any number of Afghan civilians to be evacuated — certainly Trump’s plan did not require this, nor did any plan offered up by either progressives or Republicans. But the Biden administration evacuated over 100,000.
Was there a plan that guaranteed that the Taliban wouldn’t overrun the country? If Montana teacher is upset that many tens of thousands of American soldiers were not brought back to Afghanistan indefinitely to risk their lives, with American taxpayers footing the bill, then I respect Montana’s teacher support of putting tens of thousands more American troops in harms way to support the democratically elected Afghan government indefinitely.
But in terms of a plan to withdraw, I have yet to see anyone offering a better one. I have seen a lot of talk of a “better” plan that is apparently locked in the same secret place that the Republicans’ “better” plan to replace Obamacare is. It doesn’t exist.
I realize the media eagerly amplified the “poor Afghanistan withdrawal” right wing talking points, just like they eagerly amplified the “Republicans have a great plan to replace Obamacare talking points” for many years.
Democracy is also a very poor way to elect a government. Except for all the other ways.
Biden has not shown any leadership in education, but the DOE is still in better hands than under Trump and even than under Obama.
But the Afghanistan withdrawal seemed to be as good as it gets IF one didn’t support bringing tens of thousands of Americans troops back to Afghanistan indefinitely. Every withdrawal is poor, but most don’t safely evacuate as many people. Not withdrawing at all is always arguably “better” if you supported bringing a lot more American soldiers back to Afghanistan and keeping them there indefinitely.
Flerp
What is pathetic here is your lack of depth in viewing that economic situation. First inflation : 2.3% of the CPI increase is caused by a one off shortage of chips due to a fire in Japan . Sending the price of new cars up 11% and used cars up 37% . So we are down to 4.7% .
Next do you really want to compare December prices in 2021 to 2020 when in December alone there was a loss of 306k jobs. Cheap gas has a price .
Would not the only fair comparison be to measure the 2 year increase over 2019 .But that aside you completely ignore the two main drivers of inflation when you throw out the number 7%.
A 2.6 trillion dollar shift away from Services like travel, leisure, entertainment even the dry cleaner on the corner, as workers working from home don’t need suits pressed . That shift far exceeded the 1.6 trillion given to all individuals( which the aggregate affect of is offset by lost incomes ) since March of 2020. Those dollars were plowed into goods and stocks. . Wholesalers in-turn placed massive orders early trying to avoid shut downs in Asia turning our ports into parking lots sending shipping costs through the roof. Increased demand which was not all that much higher than what the 2 year increase from 2019 would have been expected to be at, then chased after limited goods in clogged ports wow 4.7% inflation ex cars. Must be time to raise interest rates to punish workers. That will increase production real quick(not).
Now lets talk about those workers. Besides only 3.9% of them claiming to be unemployed, a historically low number. Besides these workers not being called back to their old jobs as happened early in the pandemic and employers having to match different workers to new jobs a difficult task at best . Besides the lowest number of weekly layoffs in over 1/2 a century . The Prime age 25-54 year old worker participation rate is only 1.1% lower than its post Great Recession peak in January 2020.
While it is in the same place as it was in that terrible Feb of 2018. Do you remember how terrible it was . Neither do I. So the story of young workers sitting home not wanting to work because of Government money is a pile of horseshit. But what is happening to the labor market why all the quits. Why all the help wanted signs .Relatively wealthy 55 to 65 year have packed it in, in droves. The Boomers have decided that life is to short to drop dead of Covid. 3.5 million more have retired than were projected to. And they did not leave the low wage economy. They left jobs like manufacturing that might have had pensions to sustain them and even continued medical coverage till medicare kicks in. Those openings are being filled by workers leaving the service sector for higher wages. If you can’t afford to pay workers in a restaurant a living wage perhaps you should not be in business. And if consumers can’t afford to pay higher prices for those living wages they should eat home or grow their own garden.
The biggest disappointment in recent job creation numbers (which have been spectacular after upward adjustments) were in Education. Guess who has those pensions that allow them to pack it in early if even at a slightly lower amount. A Teacher that doesn’t need some kid coughing on them because his ignoramus parents are anti mask and anti vaxx.
If the shoe fits …..
The Biden economy is doing fantastic but don’t look for the headlines when inflation starts plummeting. When Septembers Job number was changed from a healthy 212k (which was called a disappointment ) to 379k and a 150k were added to August ,while 648k jobs were added in October ; it took the Media 30 seconds to shift to the bullshit inflation story.
The hit job was obvious when the CORPORATE NY TIMES featured a story about a NJ station owner with a 1973 muscle car spending $7 a gallon on gas and 20k a week on gas . Or CNN featured a Texas Family with 35 or was it 9 children spending a 100k a week on milk (sarcasm noted ) . Obvious that the goal was to kill a progressive agenda that might have to be paid for by taxing the wealthy.
Joel,
Thank you for your comprehensive replies to someone who so frequently accuses us of doing exactly what he does.
“Pathetic economic analysis”? This person doesn’t even make an attempt to support a differeent point out view with economic analysis.
flerp just posts ad nauseam accusing everyone here of being “pathetic” or not being concerned with children the way flerp is.
Has flerp EVER offered a comprehensive argument or analysis to support any of his views? Hurling insults, snark and even the occasional profanity counts is what is actually “pathetic”.
Linking to right wing twitter feeds that demonize well-meaning educators and then denying any responsibility for the accuracy of the links that he posts is what is actually “pathetic.”
Accusing your enemy of your own sins is a tactic right out of the right wing playbook. It’s sad that flerp seems to view us all as “enemies” and thus hurls accusation after accusation at us that almost always mirror the serious issues that his own posts have.
I could criticize other people who post here and accuse them of writing posts that are much too long and boring and have far too much tedious detail. But I don’t have the chutzpah that flerp has.
NYC public school parent
Now I would never say that people sometimes are what they strongly profess not to be . Okay I said it. It would also seem that feelings of persecution are very typical of a certain political mind set, that has grievance as its unifying principle . Gas lighters they are much.(my attempt at Yoda).
As for the economic analysis I confess to intellectual property theft. The victims a Nobel Prize economic writer from the NY Times , the other a collaborator with Krugman. And a harsh critic of WaPo and the NY Times for “fake news” long before the Orange Buffoon popularized the term.
Well Baker added this little tidbit today . No paywall he does not support intellectual property rights .
“As can be seen, real wages rose over these two years in all but three industries, manufacturing, construction, and mining and logging. Together, these three industries account for just over 14 percent of total employment.”
Another words 76% of the workforce on aggregate has received more in pay raises than inflation, their real inflation adjusted wage is higher. Of course not all those in the the other industries are ahead as not all those in those 3 industries fell behind. And those higher wage industries skew the numbers.
But another front page story out of WaPo not based on reality designed to shape opinion on inflation. “The sky is falling ” who would have thunk.
https://cepr.net/washington-post-says-life-was-bleak-for-workers-on-eve-of-pandemic/
Joel,
Just like those newspapers only report “the sky is falling” about the deficit when any progressive legislation is offered.
Somehow the deficit doesn’t matter when it comes to big tax cuts for the billionaires and spending on the military.