If Biden is intent on convincing Americans that Bidenomics is the key to turning the struggling economy around, then he’s got his work cut out for him.
The U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday released its monthly inflation data showing consumer prices heading in the wrong direction, according to CNN. Prices across the board rose 3.5% in March based on the consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services prices across the economy. The figure was higher than economists had predicted and outpaced February’s 3.2% increase and represents a 0.4% month-over-month increase based on this time last year.
“To put that in context, that is certainly hotter than we were expecting,” said network analyst Rahel Solomon.
CNBC noted that the CPI now stands at its highest point since 1913:
Stock futures fell on the news while yields on treasury bonds climbed as investors absorbed the decreasing likelihood that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its June meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. Fed chair Jerome Powell has been cautiously optimistic about the bank’s ability to achieve a “soft landing” of the U.S. economy by slowly cutting rates as consumer spending cools and warding off the possibility of a recession. The third straight month of higher-than-expected inflation makes it increasingly likely that rates will stay at their current level.
Monday’s news was preempted by a strong jobs report on Friday in which employers reported adding approximately 300,000 new positions, a sign that the rate hikes are not doing enough to tamp down on economic growth. Trillions of dollars that flooded the economy during the pandemic continue to circulate, leaving the Fed with few options beyond waiting for a sea change.
Earlier this month Axios reported that the White House has largely strayed from using the term “Bidenomics” to denote the president’s stewardship of the economy. His monthly use of the term has fallen from 29 to just once over the past 12 months while Republicans up their usage to mock the Democrat’s failure to return inflation rates to pre-pandemic levels. Asked by the outlet why President Biden’s eponymous defense of his economic prowess has dropped, the White House pointed to an event in North Carolina last week where he touted the term.
“Leading economists aren’t making much fun of ‘Bidenomics’ anymore,” he said of his programs to boost the middle class through public spending. “They’re thinking maybe it works!” Biden said.
Some Democrats, however, are calling their leader tone-deaf to the grumblings of everyday Americans.
“The people that he [Biden] stands for don’t deal with economics,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) told NBC News in November. “They deal with day-to-day issues. They have to educate their children and feed their families and develop their communities — and that doesn’t sound like ‘Bidenomics.’”
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