Bidenomics: The Left’s Latest Alibi
It’s all about those bad vibes, baby.
by David Catron
June 12, 2022, 11:27 PM
If you are among the 8 in 10 Americans who believe the economy is tanking, relax. Never mind that the consumer-price index just hit 8.6 percent. Ignore skyrocketing gas prices. Forget that the gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022 and is expected to shrink further. Disregard the collapsing supply chain highlighted by empty shelves in the grocery store. Dismiss the dizzying descent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to the White House and the legacy media, none of these things matter. The real problem bedeviling the economy is bad vibes.
In a recent Vox article titled, “The bad vibes economy,” Emily Stewart professes herself puzzled by widespread concern about the economy. “This sense of dread is so pervasive that it might surprise you to hear that many aspects of the US economy are generally in good shape right now.” She then recites White House talking points about the unemployment rate — which has only reached pre-pandemic levels because labor force participation has never returned to normal. After dancing around “the elephant in the room” for 200 words or so, she finally gets to a brief discussion of inflation, which she blithely dismisses as “annoying.”
Meanwhile, during a White House briefing last week, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was questioned about the public’s pessimistic mood concerning the economy. A reporter asked her the following question: “Why do you think it is that 83 percent of people polled by the Wall Street Journal say the economy is ‘poor’ or ‘not so good’?” Jean-Pierre responded with an all too typical word salad, during which she repeated President Biden’s debunked claim that he feels the public’s pain at the pump because he was raised at a time when the price of gasoline rose precipitously. She then insisted that the economy is historically robust:
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https://spectator.org/bidenomics-the-lefts-latest-alibi/
