2023-11-23 04:30:01
For the Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday, November 23, Americans can forget politics for a moment – the shutdown, the closure of the federal state, which has once once more been avoided – and enjoy the inevitable cranberry turkey with their family. This is good, the cost of a dinner for ten people is down 4.5% over one year. A boon due to the drop in the price of lingonberry jam, by 18%, and the fall of 5.6% in that of turkey following an epidemic of bird flu in 2022. Yet, despite record growth – 4, 9% at an annual rate in the third quarter – full employment – unemployment is very low, at 3.9% – and zero inflation between September and October, falling to 3.2% over one year, the Americans find it hard to rejoice.
Wall Street is jubilant, Joe Biden sees the fruit of his policy, and yet the Americans remain gloomy. The University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index has been falling for several months and is at 63, below the 79 in January 2021 when Joe Biden arrived at the White House.
The cause is inflation, which has reached 17.6% since that date, according to the American Department of Labor. Greg Ip, the editorialist of the economic daily The Wall Street Journal, puts forward trying figures for American households. The price of gasoline? Up 43% since January 2021. That of groceries? Up 20%. Those planning to buy a home are no better off: house prices have increased by 29%, while mortgage rates have tripled. The average monthly payment to buy a home has more than doubled since January 2021, reaching $2,200. If we add the « funflation »the soaring prices of leisure activities, whether it is concerts on Broadway, stays at Disneyland or the prohibitive cost of plane travel, Americans have the impression of suffocation.
A major subject for Biden
Joe Biden can explain that he reduced inflation “by 65% since the peak” of 9.1% reached in June 2021, which caused Americans’ confidence to collapse at the 50 index, according to the University of Michigan, its fellow citizens are not satisfied with it. They want a return to previous prices, which will not come back. According to one joint investigation by the University of Michigan and the British daily Financial Times, carried out at the beginning of November, only 14% of Americans believe they are doing better financially under Joe Biden, and 26% believe the president has had a positive impact on the economy.
You have 70% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
1700726059
#Americans #gloomy #Joe #Bidens #good #economic #results
