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Posts Tagged ‘economy’
July 31st, 2024 at 11:37 am
Image of the Day: Unemployment Trending In Troubling Direction Under Biden/Harris
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In response to broad public discontent over economic conditions, the Biden/Harris administration habitually points to the nation’s unemployment rate.  What remains underreported is that the unemployment rate is actually on a disturbingly upward trend over the past year, from 3.4% in April 2023 to 4.1% now, just as voters consider whether to continue the economic policies of the past four years:

Unemployment Rate's Disturbing Upward Rise

Unemployment Rate’s Disturbing Upward Rise

 

July 16th, 2024 at 5:58 pm
Image of the Day: Biden Stock Market Boom? Well…
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In their increasingly desperate effort to resuscitate Joe Biden’s sagging campaign, his defenders claim that stock markets vindicate “Bidenomics” (not that they call it that anymore, of course) vis-a-vis former President Donald Trump.  Well, our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity show what happens when you adjust stock performance to account for out-of-control inflation under Biden:

“Biden Boom?” Not So Much.

 

June 9th, 2024 at 10:40 pm
Image of the Day: Minorities Prospered Far More Under Trump
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In our latest Liberty Update, we highlight how Americans have soured on “Bidenomics” despite Biden supporters’ ongoing insistence that voters trust them rather than over three years of actual, real-life experience and hardship.  Well, our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity have highlighted another point that merits emphasis as minorities turn against Biden in his reelection effort.  Namely, they prospered far more under President Trump than President Biden:

Minorities Prospered Far More Under Trump Than Biden

Minorities Prospered Far More Under Trump Than Biden

 

May 19th, 2024 at 11:04 pm
Image of the Day: Americans’ Shrinking Earnings Under Joe Biden
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Joe Biden tells Americans that he’s helping them by building “from the bottom up and the middle out.”  But the numbers don’t lie, and the ugly reality is that he’s only dragging us all toward the bottom.  Throughout his presidency, wage gains (green) have been consistently exceeded by inflation (blue), meaning loss in real earnings (red):

Bidenomcs Means Lost Earnings

Bidenomics Means Lost Earnings

May 8th, 2024 at 12:39 pm
Image of the Day: “Bidenomics” Crushes Consumer Confidence
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Consumer spending accounts for approximately two-thirds of the U.S. economy, so Joe Biden’s crushing impact on consumer confidence helps resolve his apologists’ confusion over Biden’s economic disapproval.  After inheriting an economy rebounding from the Covid shock, Biden’s policies quickly drove consumer confidence back downward, where it continues to stagnate.  No wonder he finds himself in such electoral hot water.

Bidenomics Crushing Consumer Confidence

Bidenomics Crushes Consumer Confidence

 

January 24th, 2024 at 5:28 pm
Image of the Day: Wages Still Haven’t Even Caught Up to Inflation Under “Bidenomics”
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As Joe Biden attempts to paint a rosy picture despite Americans’ real-world experiences, the truth is that wages still haven’t caught up to inflation during his presidency:

Inflation Exceeds Wages Under Biden

Inflation Outpaces Wages Under Biden

January 2nd, 2024 at 11:32 am
Image of the New Year: Biden Brags About Job Gains, But They’ve Continually Slowed Under Him
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The Biden Administration and its advocates insist that the economy is flourishing, often citing the job market.  According to the federal government’s own numbers, however, job gains have slowed since Biden entered the White House:

Job Gains Have Slowed Under Biden

Job Gains Have Slowed Under Biden

 

September 25th, 2023 at 12:07 pm
“It’s Working?”
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In our latest Liberty Update we highlight how replacing Joe Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket wouldn’t substantively change the left’s “Bidenomics” economic agenda that is the main voter concern driving his unpopularity.  In noting Biden’s strange and stubborn habit of whispering into the microphone that “It’s working” when promoting that failing agenda, we noted that poverty just surged at a record rate last year, according to the federal government itself.  From our friend Stephen Moore, here’s a helpful visual placing it in stark relief:

Bidenomics Is

Bidenomics Is “Working?”

August 16th, 2023 at 3:31 pm
One Year Later, Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” Having Catastrophic Impact on U.S. Healthcare and Innovation
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“The record of price controls goes as far back as human history.  They were imposed by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt.  They were decreed by Hammurabi, king of Babylon, in the eighteenth century B.C.  They were tried in ancient Athens.” -Henry Hazlitt

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Joe Biden’s misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA), which even he now admits shouldn’t have carried that title.

Beyond Biden’s own regrets, however, Americans deserve to understand its destructive impact on our healthcare system and world-leading pharmaceutical innovation sector.

Namely, our traditional market-based approach has resulted in an unrivaled legacy of pharmaceutical innovation and abundance relative to the rest of the industrialized world.

For example, the United States accounts for approximately two of every three new lifesaving drugs introduced worldwide, meaning that we alone create twice as many new drugs as the entire world combined.  As another illustration, American consumers enjoy a substantially higher availability of critical drugs compared to people in other advanced economies.  Of 270 new medicines introduced domestically since 2011, only 52% of them were available to our neighbors just across our northern border in Canada, 41% in Australia, 48 % in Japan, 53% in France, 64% in Britain and 67% in Germany.

Destructive drug price controls, however, maintained an illogical appeal for the Biden Administration and the political left.

They can’t say that they couldn’t have foreseen the downsides of the IRA.  Amid debate over broad drug price controls back in 2021, a University of Chicago study warned of their potential negative impact on future drug innovation and availability:

The United States has far fewer restrictions on price than other countries, but the Biden Administration has announced their goal to lower drug prices through greater price regulation. …  [N]ew drug approvals will fall by 32 to 65 approvals from 2021 to 2029 and 135 to 277 approvals from 2030 to 2039.  These significant drops in new drug approvals will lead to delays in needed drug therapies, resulting in worse health outcomes for patients.  

Several years earlier, even the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) similarly warned about the consequences of government price controls and intellectual property violations:

[P]rice controls, combined with the threat of market lockout or intellectual property infringement, prevent drug companies from charging market rates for their products, while delaying the availability of new cures to patients living in countries implementing those policies.  

Disregarding those warnings and textbook economic logic, the Biden Administration and Pelosi-Schumer Congress plowed ahead with the IRA, whose drug price control provisions President Biden bizarrely trumpets as a 2024 reelection theme.  From branded drugs to off-patent older generics, the Biden Administration accelerated government efforts to artificially target drug prices, oblivious to the foreseeable consequences.

We’re now suffering the consequences of that agenda.

Drug shortages have already reached record highs, increasing by 30% between 2021 and 2022 alone, according to a report earlier this summer from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:

Shortages of critical medications continue to rise – including drugs used in hospital emergency rooms and to treat cancer, prescription medications, and even common over-the-counter treatments like children’s cold and flu medicine.  The number of active drug shortages in the U.S. reached a peak of 295 at the end of 2022. …  Between 2021 and 2022, new drug shortages increased by nearly 30 percent.  At the end of 2022, drug shortages experienced a record five-year high of 295 active drug shortages.  

Separately, a new report from the American Cancer Society warns of emerging drug shortages, caused in part by drug pricing policies:

Chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer are increasingly in short supply and have returned to the list of top-five drug classes affected by shortage.  Expanded demand, supply shortages, limited manufacturing capacity, and low profit margins for generic therapies are among the factors resulting in the current nationwide shortage.  …  A number of the drugs included in the shortage don’t have an effective alternative.  As first-time treatments for a number of cancers, including triple-negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer and leukemia often experienced by pediatric cancer patients, the shortage could lead to delays in treatment that could result in worse outcomes.  

Accordingly, drug shortages have reached record levels under the looming threat of drug price controls, weaker intellectual property protections and regulatory browbeating.

Instead of perpetuating the IRA’s spiral of price control insanity, elected leaders should return to the more market-oriented approach that brought unrivaled innovation before more Americans pay the needless cost.

July 27th, 2023 at 11:10 am
Image of the Day: “Bidenomics”
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Make of this what you will, as Joe Biden pitches “Bidenomics” in his reelection effort and maligns the alleged “trickle down” economic record of his predecessor:

Bidenomics

Bidenomics

 

June 6th, 2023 at 11:45 am
Image of the Day: The Ongoing Biden Pay Cut
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Posted without additional commentary, per the latest Labor Department data, here’s an illustration from economist Steve Moore of the immediate and ongoing pay cut that Americans have experienced since Joe Biden became president:

The Biden Pay Cut

The Biden Pay Cut

May 15th, 2023 at 3:10 pm
Image of the Day: The Record Biden Earnings Bust
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We recently referenced how Joe Biden seeks a 2024 job extension from American voters even while he has presided over a record 24 consecutive months of earnings declines (wages minus inflation), and our friend Stephen Moore offers an instructive illustration of the point:

Record Biden Earnings Bust

Record Biden Earnings Bust

 

February 13th, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Image of the Day: Joe Biden, Slashing American Wages Since Taking Office
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While Joe Biden simply repeats his claims to be building an economy “from the bottom up and the middle out,” and strangely brags about slight reductions in the rate of inflation that shot upward under him, our friend Stephen Moore provides yet another handy visual on how inflation has outpaced wage gains since Biden entered the White House:

Inflation Outpaces Wage Gains Undere Biden

Joe Biden the Wage Slayer

December 16th, 2022 at 3:23 pm
Stacy Washington Warns Against So-Called “Safe Lending Act” in New Commentary
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Continuing our efforts to warn against the perils of federal, state, and local efforts to target short-term lenders while working families face increasing economic headwinds, Stacy Watson came out with a fantastic new commentary entitled “What’s the Fed Doing to Fight ‘She-Flation?”  She highlights the ways in which inflation can hit women particularly hard, and cautions against counterproductive legislation and regulation that will only make access to financing more difficult:

While the federal government is acting to tame inflation through legislation and monetary policy, there is more that can be done to ease the burdens of she-flation. For one, the government should increase access to liquidity for small businesses. That would incentivize and enable women to become entrepreneurs, seize control of their destinies, and, it is hoped, increase earning potential. Encouraging banks to partner with technology companies that serve underbanked consumers would open access to credit for many single moms and entrepreneurial women.   

Lawmakers should also take off the table legislation that would remove access to personal and small business credit, such as the recently reintroduced “Safe Lending Act.” Although the bill purports to protect consumers from deceptive lending practices, what it would actually do is gut access to credit for working-class families, minorities, and women.”

Bravo.

December 5th, 2022 at 10:56 am
Image of the Day: Sure Enough, Credit Card Balances Are Exploding
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As misguided politicians and regulators continue to target short-term lenders, which provide American consumers with vital financial lifelines when the only alternatives are skipping payments, bouncing checks, running up credit card debts or even going to dangerous loansharks, we’ve consistently noted how short-term lenders’ role becomes increasingly important as the U.S. economy deteriorates and credit card reliance skyrockets.  Sure enough, the New York Fed numbers provide an alarming illustration:

Credit Card Debt Skyrocketing

Credit Card Debt Skyrocketing

All the more reason to protect consumers’ access to legal, reliant, efficient short-term lending rather than irrationally target it.

August 18th, 2022 at 6:01 pm
Amid Recession and High Inflation, Groups Like the “National Consumer Law Center” Seek to Narrow Rather Than Expand U.S. Consumer Lending Options
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As inflation continues to spiral upward at multi-decade highs and with the U.S. economy now in recession, maintaining an “all of the above” array of lending options for American consumers becomes more and more important.  Unfortunately, activist groups like the “National Consumer Law Center” aim to do the opposite and limit rather than expand consumer options.

For a sense of consumers’ growing desperation, consider a Federal Reserve report on exploding credit card debt, as highlighted by Steve Cortes:

How have consumers dealt with these skyrocketing prices? The simple answer, unfortunately: via credit cards, particularly for working-class households. Just last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued a damning report on this credit binge for consumers, into a pronounced economic slowdown.

Total consumer debt rose a staggering $40 billion in June, far surpassing Wall Street expectations of a $25 billion increase…

A huge portion of this new debt flows from costly, risky credit card use. In fact, for the April-June second quarter of 2022, total credit card debt rose a staggering $46 billion, the biggest jump in 20 years. Americans pile into new accounts to accomplish this borrowing, opening up a whopping 233 million new cards during that second quarter, the most new cards since 2008. Such comparisons to the Great Recession should worry everyone.”

Additionally, credit cards aren’t always a viable option for many Americans, and traditional bank loans aren’t always an option due to small amounts needed for short-term emergencies.  Whereas higher-income Americans with stronger credit history can borrow from banks, utilize assets they possess as leverage or use their savings, consumers with lower credit scores or lacking sufficient savings cannot.  Indeed, according to the Fair Isaac Corporation, some 46% of consumers possess credit scores below 700, meaning that traditional bank loans aren’t possible for them.

In such circumstances, struggling Americans can access the money they need for the short-term via consumer finance loans.

Groups like the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), however, want to limit the availability of such options, which they falsely characterize as some sort of scheme “to snare consumers into predatory loans for auto repairs, tires, furniture, and even pets.”

In reality, however, the unintended consequence of efforts like that of the NCLC will be to drive temporarily strapped consumers to seek out illegal loansharks, suffer overdrafts, or simply be unable to cover their temporary costs.  As none other than the World Bank found, such limitations lead to “increases in non-interest fees and commissions; reduced price transparency; lower number of institutions and reduced branch density; and adverse impacts on bank profitability, in addition to the lack of access for smaller and riskier borrowers.”

That doesn’t help the people whom groups like the NCLC claim to protect, it hurts them.  Accordingly, American consumers and elected leaders should recognize the peril that NCLC and similar groups present.  Their efforts would only make consumer lending more difficult, more dangerous and more expensive.

July 18th, 2022 at 1:13 pm
Image of the Day: “Putin Price Hike?” No, a Biden Inflation Blowup
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While Joe Biden attempts to blame a shifting array of scapegoats for inflation, the simple numbers demonstrate the unmistakable truth.  Consumer prices began skyrocketing upon Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, and wage gains plummeted toward an immediate deficit relative to inflation.  During the Trump presidency, wages consistently exceeded inflation, only rarely even coming in even, let alone in negative territory.  Economist Stephen Moore illustrates the reality unambiguously:

 

 

 

May 19th, 2022 at 12:51 pm
Image of the Day: More Economic Freedom = Higher Standard of Living
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In last week’s Liberty Update, we highlighted the Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Index of Economic Freedom, which shows that Joe Biden has dragged the U.S. down to 22nd, our lowest rank ever (we placed 4th in the first Index in 1995, and climbed back up from 18th to 12th under President Trump).  As we noted, among the Index’s invaluable metrics is how it demonstrates the objective correlation between more economic freedom and higher citizen standards of living, which this graphic illustrates:

 

April 4th, 2022 at 12:05 pm
Image of the Day: Biden’s Silly “Putin Price Hike” Excuse
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Apparently nothing is too preposterous for Joe Biden and his apologists.  They attempt to rationalize out-of-control inflation and wage erosion as a “Putin Price Hike,” but a simple chronology immediately refutes that (unless Vladimir Putin somehow took control of the U.S. economy in January 2021):

 

“Putin Price Hike?”

January 24th, 2022 at 12:44 pm
Image of the Day: Americans Remain Highly Positive Toward Free Enterprise and Business Over Government
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In what sometimes seems like an era of constantly expanding government and demonization of free markets, a recent Gallup poll offers refreshing news – Americans overwhelmingly view free markets positively, especially relative to the federal government:

"Free

Political candidates would be wise to emphasize this in an election year 2022, and elected leaders would be wise to translate Americans’ preference into concrete action.