Unless the president does something monumentally stupid (like telling people not to wear masks during a pandemic) the president has little impact on the economy (or oil prices). Why do people keep talking about the president like he's got a great big series of valves that controls the economy? It's ridiculous!

Any decision the president makes that will impact the economy is most likely to have an impact ten years later. Sometimes an impact can be felt sooner than that but it's usually not a good thing for the economy... Like starting a war or closing the borders.

Still, Ms Ellis has sometimes turned to risky payday loans (short-term borrowing with high interest rates) as she grapples with grocery prices that have surged 25% since Mr Biden entered office in January 2021.

Payday loans caused such a problem for young and dumb military members that there's a law about how much interest they can charge military members, and subsequently won't loan to military members.

We need those predatory interest laws to protect everyone.

But it's depressing as fuck the rates are so predatory it literally had a negative impact on the US military.

This is why I worry that Republicans will win: bc they have mastered the "truth" that facts don't matter so much as campaign commercials.

And apparently journalists also, e.g. that line "They can't buy groceries anymore. They can’t.” - I mean... there are cheaper options that don't involve going into debt to purchase goods on a literally weekly basis.

Even here in the Fediverse, we send them clicks and spread the message for them. E.g. when the woman says:

"I know he's a big fat mouth," she says of Mr Trump. "But he at least knows how to run the economy."

Whereas in response the reporter tried to be "fair & balanced" by saying that:

Mr Biden has claimed, incorrectly, that inflation was already at 9% when he entered office. It was 1.4%.

There is no reason to give either of these statements the time or day, but instead they spread them as "newsworthy".

I guess it's my own fault for remaining subscribed to this community, if this is the content that regularly appears here.

From https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/inflation-higher-biden-rising-pay-makes-rcna158569 :

"Cumulative wage growth since the start of the pandemic has outpaced price growth across the wage distribution, but the most wage growth has been among lower-wage workers," Bank of America economists wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "This is likely because labor shortages have been the most acute in blue-collar sectors. While recent wage growth has been distributed more evenly across the distribution, the large cumulative wage gains for lower-income consumers since 4Q 2019 have buffered them against the inflation shock."

I admit that every time I buy groceries, I am shocked by the prices. The thing is: I don't blame the President for it. I blame lax regulation that has allowed monopolies to take over everything and pay workers as little as possible -- particularly by misclassifying them as contractors. I also blame the Supreme Court for ruling in favor of the rich and powerful instead of the the citizenry and/or the institutional expertise within the government (EPA, NIS, etc.).

I'm frustrated that it seems the only people who can garner enough attention to get elected are ALL saying nice things to their base, then creating legislation and/or voting to take power from governmental regulators and experts and just let big businesses so whatever they want -- which ALWAYS boils down to stripping as much money and power as they can from the populace.

Have some links:

• https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/18/market-discipline/#too-big-to-care
• https://www.vox.com/scotus/357554/supreme-court-sec-jarkesy-roberts-sotomayor-chaos
• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/06/chevron-doctrine-supreme-court-ruling

Also... inflation is always there. My parents made a laughable amount of money together compared to what I make. The only difference is time. Once time passes your income becomes smaller than the new generations. Thus making you eventually homeless after retirement.

I hope these words help others understand how inflation is another tool to make us work our ass off during our useful life and then make good riddance of us after we're no longer useful.

Was it only me that was told in school to avoid using the word "But" at the start of a sentence? I break that rule quite often, but this BBC article starts many paragraphs with that.

To address the article itself: Payday loans are awful and lead to ruin. If you're at the point where they're your only option, you're already screwed.

If someone thinks that Trump as President is going to make things better, that is very much delusional thinking. No matter that you lose your rights, your immigrant friend or family members getting kicked out for no reason, and your country sold to Republican connected contractors! At least you get sent a $1000 cheque from the US treasury as a special bri-, I mean 'gratuity'.

I often see the 25% figure cited, but my own receipts have shown 50%+ increases in the same time period. I never buy brand name or much in the way of snacks. Is the 25% figure obtained by making substitutions like switching to store brand? I don't have much leeway there since I already go for no frills groceries. I would be very interested in knowing how they determine "only" a 25% increase in prices over that period of time.

This time around, issues such as immigration and fitness for office are also top of many voters' minds, while economic trends appear to be moving in the right direction.

Grocery prices were up just 1% over the past 12 months, well within historic norms; and the cost of a few items, including rice, fish, apples, potatoes, and milk, has even come down a bit.

As major chains such as Target, Amazon and Walmart announce price cuts in recent weeks, there are signs the situation could continue to improve.

Some analysts also expect wages, which have increased but trailed the leap in overall prices, to finally catch up this year, providing further relief.

“We’re on the right track,” says Sarah Foster, who follows the economy for Bankrate.com. “Wage growth has slowed, price growth has slowed but, you know, prices are slowing at a much faster rate than wages.”

Stephen Lemelin, a 49-year-old father of two from Michigan, another electoral battleground, says he was pleasantly surprised by lower prices on a recent supermarket trip.

Whatever his concerns about the economy, the military veteran says his support for Mr Biden, who got his vote in 2020, has never been in doubt, given that he sees Trump as a threat to democracy.

“Nobody likes high interest rates or high inflation but that’s not under presidential control,” he says. “If you know politics, there’s really only one choice.”

“We’re on the right track,” says Sarah Foster, who follows the economy for Bankrate.com. “Wage growth has slowed, price growth has slowed but, you know, prices are slowing at a much faster rate than wages.”

total horse shit

went to the grocery store two weeks ago and prices were higher than the previous week and this week the price seems higher still and wages seem like they are getting smaller

if you plebs don't downgrade how will we subsidize billionaires and corporations?

A surprisingly even-handed article. Figures that the BBC seems the most capable of fairly reporting American domestic news.