When Joey Met Jimmy
The Biden-Carter comparison is not even close.
By Lloyd Billingsley
July 1, 2022
With inflation and discontent on the rise, Delaware Democrat Joe Biden is drawing comparisons to Georgia Democrat and one-term president, Jimmy Carter, who served from 1976 until 1980. For Jon Miltimore, executive editor of the Foundation for Economic Education, the comparison makes sense on some levels.
Both presidencies followed catastrophic wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan, “that ended badly and required massive amounts of deficit spending (and money printing).” In similar style, Carter and Biden “inherited troubled economies.”
Inflation was already “north of 5 percent” when Carter took over, and unemployment was at 7.5 percent. For his part, Biden “took office during a pandemic that saw widespread government lockdowns, business closures, and unprecedented stimulus spending.”
Carter’s legislative agenda required the Federal Reserve to expand the money supply. By December 1979, inflation was running at 13.3 percent. Biden’s “money pumping” sent the deficit to $2.8 trillion, the second-largest in history, followed by “a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill.”
Although there are no 1970s-style gas lines just yet, the average price of gasoline is nearly $5 a gallon, inflation is at a 40-year high, and, Miltimore reports, “stocks are red, with the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq down 9.8 percent, 14 percent, and 23 percent year-to-date, respectively.” On the other hand, Miltimore finds, “a closer look at the Carter presidency shows Biden has not yet earned the comparison.”
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