Atlantic Columnist Tries to Downplay Inflation, Fails
By: Isaac Schorr (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Isaac SchorrSep 8th, 2023, 5:05 pm Twitter share button <?php // Post Body ?
Bidenomics has at least one believer outside of President Joe Biden's administration.
The Atlantic 's Tom Nichols is so devoted to the manufactured branding concept that he's disregarded grade school math in service of it, and he's upset with those of us who won't do the same.
A recent Wall Street Journal survey showed that exclusive group includes just about three-quarters of the country (PDF). As Nichols observed on X, "74 percent of registered voters think inflation is headed in the wrong direction."
"There is no reasoning with this many people being this wrong," lamented the self-styled expert about the foolish, ungrateful masses. "It's not possible to shovel against that tide."
WSJ poll: 74 percent of registered voters think inflation is headed in the wrong direction.
There is no reasoning with this many people being this wrong. It's not possible to shovel against that tide.https://t.co/4HkULAL0iM
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 6, 2023
What Nichols hasn't stopped to consider here is what he's never stopped to consider anywhere: What if he's the ignorant one? And here - as is so often the case - he is.
According to the Department of Labor, inflation refers to the "general upward price movement of goods and services in an economy." In common parlance, consumers measure inflation by whether they're paying more for things than they used to.
It is true that the rate at which prices are increasing has gone down. Indeed, it would have been difficult to maintain the rate at which prices were increasing for the first two years of Biden's term in office.
An analysis performed in March of this year found that Biden had overseen price increases that outstripped those observed during every president since Jimmy Carter and found that across a wide range of categories, consumers were paying 15% more than they were when Biden was inaugurated.
For food, that number was as high as 18.3%; for energy, it was a whopping 37.2%.
That's not all Biden's fault — although the trillions more in discretionary spending has obviously been to consumers' detriment — and it is of course a good thing that prices are no long skyrocketing at the historic rate seen over the last two years. But one could hardly expect Americans to interpret a decrease in the rate at which prices are still increasing as a sign that the economy was headed in the right direction.
Here's an example that should be illustrative, if painful for this writer.
The New York Jets won 11 games in 2010, 8 games in 2011, and 6 games in 2012. If then-head coach Rex Ryan had tried to sell fans on the idea that they were headed in the right direction after the 2012 season because the rate at which they were declining had decreased, I don't suppose it would have gone terribly well for him.
But because Nichols wants Biden to prevail in the 2024 election, he's decided to make a similarly ridiculous case in an unbearably haughty manner.
He can try to gaslight the people suffering under the yoke of a significantly higher cost of living for not agreeing with his estimation of just how good they have it, but they're unlikely to buckle under the weight of his unwarranted exasperation.
Condescension's a bad look on the brightest of minds, so to see Nichols wearing it so proudly is downright blinding.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
Filed Under: BidenomicsinflationThe AtlanticTom Nichols Previous PostNext Post Previous PostNext Post Load Comments
No Trump or fascist nonsense, memes must be topical.
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This.
Some people do not understand what this means.
Probably those same folks who believed budget increases were really budget cuts.
C'mon man, that's Bidenomics in action.... it's obviously working as intended if they say so
Forgot... /s
The article was put out by a hard core Atlantic journalist and Biden supporter(and I use the term journalist loosely). That speaks volumes right there. In my opinion, Tom Nichols is just flat out wrong and misguided as well.
Country club democrats can’t be bothered with the problems of working people.
There's only one thing wrong with this article. Its wrong.
A slowing down of inflation IS movement in the right direction.
Let's use an example of a person who is losing blood. In hour one the person loses a pint and a half of blood, in the second hour he loses a pint of blood , and in the third hour he loses a half pint of blood. The blood loss is slowing down.
The article would claim there is no improvement because he is still losing blood. But there is reason for hope since the blood loss is slowing with each progressive measuring period.
Tom Nichols is right.
Problem is when you've lost 3 pints of blood, you tend to go into hypovolemic shock (also known as low-volume shock). Hypovolemic shock is a life-threatening emergency.
And that's the problem that is being pointed out to you. Yes, the rate of inflation is slowing but it's a cumulative effect and prices are still going up. People are having trouble making ends meet in today's economy. You ignore the problem just because the rate is better today than it was a year ago. BFD.
I'm not ignoring anything. The rate of inflation is slowing down. That is improvement.
Read what I wrote, you are ignoring the problem and only focusing on the rate of inflation. Come out of your partisan bubble.
Amen to that.
Yes, being able to move upwards out of an ever deepening hole can be viewed as improvement by the overly optimistic, somehow I don't think most Americans are viewing it that way...
I like to use the example of someone who makes 5K per month.
Since Biden was inaugurated, their discretionary income has decreased by $750 per month.
That's a helluva a hit, and the reason most people rightly don't think we are "headed in the right direction" is they are still out all that money every month and even though the rate at which they are losing money is decreasing, they are still losing.
Seems clear to me.
Doctor to nurse: Is the patient still expected to pass tonight?
Nurse: No, Doctor, he is expected last until the weekend now.
Doctor: Well, that's an improvement, he is dying slower than expected.
Yet, the US economy is growing while we lead the rest of the world in recovery post Covid and past supply chain disruptions caused by Putin's War in Ukraine. Jobs are now plentiful, businesses are making record profits and inflation is down. So, your analogy is a load of rank bullshit...
Thank god that we have Joe leading our CEOs.
They do say that ignorance is bliss.....
And keeping the nasty petroleum industry at bay..... I mean, who doesn't want to pay higher prices if it helps Democracy?....
Your comment is indicative of someone who doesn't understand what the article was about.
Quick question for you:
Is inflation higher now, and still increasing overall, than when Biden was sworn in?
And yet, Democrats ----all while touting the GREAT BIDEN ECONOMY-----can't explain why people can't pay their debts.
Math seems like a really hard thing for some liberals to grasp.