Incredibly, Americans, by a wide margin, still tell pollsters that Republicans would be better than Democrats at running the economy. What alternative planet of universe are these boneheads living in? Do they even pay remote attention to the financial news - including 366,000 new jobs added recently? (WSJ, 'Job Gains Shatter Expectations')What the hell is their (brain) damage that they could be so out of tune rationally and with reality?
My contention is these believers in Reepo economic power (despite them almost causing a shutdown last month and a credit default earlier) have had their brains blitzed by too many FOX propaganda pieces or not enough background - including historical facts - from the Dem side. Consider:
- Over the last fifty years, every Republican President has seen a recession, while we have had only one recession begin under a Democrat, a short six-month recession under Carter.
- Over the last forty years every Republican President has created a deficit at least double the previous record. Over that same time, every Democratic President (including already Biden) has cut the deficit by half or more.
- The last three Democratic Presidents (including Biden) have all seen unemployment effectively cut in half. The last two Republicans both saw it effectively double.
- Over the last fifty years, despite holding the Presidency for only 22 years compared to Republicans holding it 28, stock market return has been just over 100% under Republicans and just shy of 1,000% under Democrats.
- Over 42 million jobs have been created under Democrats compared to only 24 million under Republicans. Income growth averaged 2.2% under Democrats compared to 0.6% under Republicans. GDP growth averaged 4.1% under Democrats compared to 2.7% under Republicans
Why have hardly any of these facts been processed? Why does the myth of Republican dominance over finance and the economy persist? Is it that the GOP and its allied media are better at spinning the media? I suspect so, and this follows on from my previous post,
On how we need to avoid becoming sheeple or authoritarian fodder. From the state of polling recently on inflation and the economy it appears too many of my fellow citizens have already been transmuted into economic Sheeple. But they need to fight their way out of it given we may not retain a democracy in 13 months if they allow this bullshit to see them electing Trump.
NY Times columnist (and Economics Nobel Prize winner) Paul Krugman took this on barely two weeks earlier, writing:
"Regular readers know that I’ve been trying to make sense of negative public perceptions of the economy since the beginning of last year. At the time some of the economic news was bad: Inflation was high and wages were lagging behind prices, although job growth was very good. So it made sense for Americans to be somewhat down on the economy; but it didn’t seem to make sense for views of the economy to be as negative as they had been during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis or circa 1980, when America had both high inflation and high unemployment.
Since then, however, the puzzle has become much deeper. The economic news in 2023 has been almost all good — indeed, almost surreally good. Inflation has come way down. Most measures that try to get at “underlying” inflation, extracting the signal from the noise, indicate that we may be getting close to 2 percent inflation, which is the Federal Reserve’s target."
Adding:
"Which story is right? There’s probably some truth to both: Americans are upset about past inflation, but they also have false perceptions about the current state of the economy."
Punctuating that last point is this from yesterday's Wall Street Journal (p. A2):
“Interest rates are high, inflation remains elevated and pandemic savings are dwindling. Yet the American consumer is on a spending binge. Consumers are still splashing out on a range of items and experiences, including on interest-rate sensitive cars and more expensive restaurant meals....The strength of the labor market is one reason consumers still have the wherewithal to snap up expensive items including cars. "
Again, suggesting a massive mental disconnect. And also earlier cited by Krugman in his own piece:
"The
notion that there’s a disconnect between perceptions of the economy and
personal experience seems to be validated by the fact that consumer spending remains robust despite low
economic confidence."
Because, seriously, if so many are worried about rising gas, rent, egg and milk prices why the hell are they spending like drunken sailors- on expensive restaurant meals, new cars and Taylor Swift concert tickets? Some commenters in the WSJ forums suggested that it's not the middle earners at all being captured but the upper crust, i.e. the top 1 percent. But I don't buy that given interviews seen on various media forums with young women on how they've cashed in part of their 401 (k)s to see Taylor Swift. Or are applying money set aside for college loan repayments to become "Swifties". So something else is at work, a mental infection perhaps - derived from the contagion of Covid 19 that's still around and causing hospitalizations. (Which is why I got my 4th Covid booster recently)
My own theory is that Covid has so disrupted brain cells after three years that normal reasoning, thinking has been damaged - maybe permanently. Perceptions especially have been so distorted by FOX propaganda and negative news memes and inputs that many simply accept the negative economic tripe and say to themselves "La la la let's live for today!"
In a way Krugman agrees noting there is evidence that we’re in a "vibecession" in which people gobble up a negative meme or narrative that's also contradicted by their own experience. This isn't mere conjecture given recent surveys disclose huge gap between Americans' view of their own financial situation and their views of the economy overall i.e. they think is happening to others. Maybe if Americans communicated outside their silos their brains would be closer to reality on the economy and less in sheeple mode.
But conceivably a more sinister force is at work, underscoring a general national malaise and malignant depression that is raising even more havoc than brain derangement. I refer to an exceptional American mortality pattern identified by the researchers Jacob Bor and Andrew Stokes, who found that a million more Americans died each year (from 2015 to 2021) than would have if the country’s overall mortality rates matched those of peer countries in Europe.
Indeed, at every age below 80, Americans are dying more often than people in their peer nations. What can account for this? No one is sure why - though "deaths of despair" has been floated - and clearly statistics alone can't be a basis for causation or firm interpretation. But I suspect the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine' is the mental misalignment of Americans we see in polls that conflict with reality, whether to do with the economy, inflation or Biden vs. Trump as proper presidential candidates. One thing is certain, we'd better figure it out and soon.
Krugman himself ends his piece writing:
"I’ve been particularly struck by what people say about the news they’ve been hearing. We’ve gained 13 million jobs since Joe Biden took office, yet Americans consistently report hearing more negative than positive news about employment.
The big question politically is whether these negative views will change in time for the 2024 election. Will people finally hear about the good news? Will they still be angry in November 2024 that prices aren’t what they were in 2020? The answers may determine our political future."
The key again is not to become Sheeple, but to learn and process actual information - whether about the economy in general, inflation, or the turmoil and slaughter in the Middle East. People, in general, need to be smarter and to process reality better without the noise of propaganda now reaching deafening levels.
See Also:
The Economy Is Great. Why Do Americans Blame Biden?
Excerpt:
There is a sharp disconnect between the U.S. economy’s underlying realities, which are good, and people’s attitudes about the economy, which remain sour. Why does President Biden’s economic performance get such bad marks when unemployment is near record lows, net jobs are still being created at a breakneck pace, and inflation has fallen notably?
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
The Insidious Danger Of Propaganda And How It Has Infected Brains And Threatened Our Democracy
And:
by Robert Reich | October 19, 2023 - 7:25am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
When we talk about someone being “adult” these days, it’s usually by comparison to people who are technically adults but who act like children.
As I look at the people on the center stage of America now — the Republican clowns in the House, the childishly narcissistic Donald Trump, the juveniles on Fox News, the forever infantile Elon Musk, the fraudulent RFK Jr., the greedy CEOs who are raking in record compensation while refusing to raise the wages of their frontline workers, the spoiled financiers who want to make even bigger bets with other people’s money — I’m appalled at how few adults are in the room.
When I look at people on center stage abroad — at autocrats like Netanyahu, Putin, and Xi, at mindless fanatics like the leaders of Hamas, and at dithering European prime ministers who waver over dependence on Russian oil, aid to Ukraine, and efforts to slow climate change — I’m dismayed by the paucity of adults.
No comments:
Post a Comment