After a year of hints of recession, an unexpectedly resilient economy is giving the White House a boost as it ramps up record sales to new professionals. They started shaking off the “vibe session”.
At the same time, government officials say they are increasingly confident that the situation on the ground pretty much tells the whole story. economy Achieved high growth of 3.1% pace between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the same period last year; Anti-inflation measures are slowing down, Job market remains strong And that The stock market hit a record high.
National Economic Council Chairman Lael Brainard described the economic situation as “extraordinary” to reporters at the White House on Friday.
“Historically, we have never seen a year in which the economy grew above trend, unemployment remained low and stable, and inflation fell so rapidly,” he said. Ta.
Jared Bernstein, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview Friday that the economy is a “growth machine that continues to deliver results,” supported by a tight labor market, strong consumer spending and rising real wages. Stated.
And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech at the Chicago Economic Club on Thursday that the U.S. “now has far more goods and services than it did before the pandemic” following an economic recovery she called the fairest in history. “We are producing,” he boasted. .
The dual challenge now for President Joe Biden and the leaders of his administration and re-election campaign is to continue these trends while getting more Americans to pay attention.
There is some evidence that this is already the case.University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index Prices soared in December and JanuaryThough views on the economy are divided along partisan lines, Democrats and Republicans alike posted their best indicators in more than two years.
Some business owners who tried their best to fight the recession last year were pleasantly surprised to find that it never arrived.
Josh Berg, owner of Glass Enterprises, a glass manufacturing company in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, said he was caught off guard by the continued strong economy. In preparation for last year’s economic slowdown, he instead hired more employees and took on new business, growing both sales and profits. He gave the current economic situation an “A-” rating and said he would hire more people if he could find them.
“2023 was a good year. And I think most companies, if they’re proactive, would say the same thing,” he said.
But Berg hasn’t completely shaken off his skepticism. He remains concerned about high interest rates and cheap imports.
“When I evaluate candidates, it’s who will protect business. And for me, and I’m totally biased, it’s who will protect manufacturing.”
Former President Donald Trump, the overwhelming front-runner for the Republican nomination, argued that Biden’s economic policies were a failure.he said earlier this month “I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover when the crash happens, so I hope it happens over the next 12 months,” he said in an interview with right-wing media.
A Biden campaign spokesperson calls the latest economic data proving “Biden’s policies are working” and predicts a second Trump administration will reverse gains for middle-class households. did. “We are investing early and aggressively to help voters understand their choices this November,” he said.
Meanwhile, the White House plans to chip away at uncertainties like Berg’s. Reduce insulin costs For many diabetics and Medicare drug price reductions — and by pushing it back Overdraft and other “junk” feesFurther cost reduction efforts will be undertaken in the coming months.
This is a smaller package than the historic investments (some of which were bipartisan) in climate, infrastructure, and manufacturing that Democrats enacted before Republicans narrowly took back the House in the midterm elections. But it’s all part of the administration’s plan to show that its economic plan is a success.
White House officials say the assertion gives them more confidence, but they remain wary of sounding tone-deaf.
“Both the president and I understand that many Americans feel deep pessimism about the economy that goes back far before the pandemic,” Yellen said Thursday, adding, “middle-class life in this country remains… “It’s unnecessarily harsh,” he added.
By Thanksgiving, The word “bidenomics” has almost disappeared. From Biden’s public statements. At the time, some Democratic strategists and allies of the president argued that the label did not resonate with the public. Americans’ unusually bleak economic outlookand Republicans were using it to blame Biden for high inflation.
The White House insists that “Bidenomics” is not going out of use as a buzzword. Biden and Yellen used the term at least once in public this week. But administration officials have stressed that they are focused on keeping the trend line upward, and say public mood will follow, reducing the need for branding efforts.
“Our job is not done yet,” Bernstein said, acknowledging there are still “banana peels” to avoid. geopolitical risk to Possible government shutdown. Still, he said, “If we’re on the right path, it should show up in the sentiment index. And lo and behold, we’re starting to see it.”
Bernstein added that a few months ago he told his team to “think about price levels” for common purchases rather than broad inflation statistics. “The idea is that people set prices in their heads. They remember the price of eggs,” he says.
That’s certainly true for Robert Bowden, who has worked at Glass Enterprises in Bensalem for five years. The father of three children, ages 17, 16 and 8, is still acutely aware that many things are “spending more” even though inflation has slowed.
“The pay is okay, but the cost of living is high,” he said.
Mr. Trump still enjoys strong support among working-class voters, and Biden officials know they are far from done making their case in the nearly nine months leading up to Election Day. are doing.
Brainard said Friday that average-income households now have “$3,500 more to spend this year than they did before, accounting for inflation.” When Biden became president. A day earlier, Yellen said in Chicago that the employment gap, where unemployment was 20% higher in rural areas than in urban areas, had been “closed.”
“It takes time for investments to pay off,” he said, adding: “We are investing in a lot of things that have been ignored for decades.”
