Moore: Will Joe Biden learn Jimmy Carter’s inflation lesson?

Stephen Moore

In the 1980 presidential campaign, the Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, said, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.” The Gipper turned out to be correct. The gale-force winds of rising inflation had knocked working-class people to the ground, with paychecks shrinking month after month. Reagan wound up winning a landslide victory, and Carter was bounced out of office.

The middle class hates inflation. The New York Times recently surmised that the effects of inflation are mostly “psychological,” and that people should appreciate that “the U.S. economy is doing well.” Wrong. People feel the impact of rising prices daily. It doesn’t just make them FEEL poorer. They are poorer.

President Joe Biden doesn’t seem to get that, and if he doesn’t get it soon, he may suffer the same fate of a ruined presidency that befell Carter. Biden has been touting wage gains for workers of 4%. During normal times, that would be a very solid number. Except, for every one of the past six months, the consumer price index has outpaced wage gains. Over the past year, inflation has been running at 6.2%, which means that the public’s purchasing power is relentlessly shrinking even with 4% wage increases.

Read the full article here: https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/11/19/moore-will-joe-biden-learn-jimmy-carters-inflation-lesson/