Stanley Greenberg, the author of this piece in the Financial Times seems to believe that the only problem for Joe Biden is his messaging—not his wildly destructive and unpopular policies—and the first thing the politician needs to do is dump “Bidenomics” from his vocabulary because the people aren’t buying it. From the essay, published this past Thursday:
Trump is overperforming, but there’s a way back for Biden
The reason Donald Trump is currently overperforming as an anti-system, anti-immigrant candidate is that Joe Biden hasn’t realised yet the rules of the next US presidential election.
The 2024 race is being shaped by three exceptional factors. First, the inflation produced by the economy restarting after the pandemic, supply chain problems, rising energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the high cost of food. Second, heightened anger at profiteering by big companies and increasingly visible monopolies. And third, surging levels of migration caused by wars, political unrest and extreme weather.
Greenberg puts forth three factors fueling Trump’s popularity, but somehow, none of them seem to be Biden’s fault; it’s all just (un)luck of the draw.
First off, the inflation assertion is full of lies—the supply chain issues occurred early in 2020 when governments shut down the global economy, but inflation was still below two percent when Biden took office, and the economy was already roaring back.
Energy prices started soaring as soon as Biden was inaugurated, because he’s been openly carrying out his stated goal to destroy industries that produce coal, oil, and natural gas—the war in Ukraine restarted a year later in 2022.
Somehow this journalist doesn't blame high government spending; remember Milton Friedman’s famous “inflation is made in Washington because only Washington can create money” line? Greenberg also fails to cite Biden energy policies, which is a major contributor to higher priced items.
As for Greenberg’s “second” observation about “heightened anger” towards “profiteering” companies? The White House, along with many media outlets obviously, have begun to blame corporations for the high prices, but that is meant to intentionally mislead the public.
Profit levels in the spring of 2023 were at the lowest level since 2020 because companies’ prices are not going up as fast as their costs. That is the opposite of what the public is being told. From AP News this past summer:
After enjoying a strong run where they could keep raising prices to boost their profits, companies are now stuck in a vise. On one end, revenue is under pressure as the global economy remains fragile. On the other, companies are having to pay higher wages for workers, among other costs.
Caught in the middle are corporate profit margins, which measure how much in profit companies make on each $1 of revenue.
Altogether, companies in the S&P 500 likely earned $111 in net profit for every $1,000 in revenue during the spring, according to FactSet. That would be the weakest level since the end of 2020, when the economy was still coming out of the crater created by the coronavirus pandemic.
“And third, surging levels of migration caused by wars, political unrest and extreme weather.”
This is one of the biggest lies of all. These problems existed during Trump’s term but he largely enforced immigration laws; Biden chose not to, and that is why millions have “surged” in since he took office. And what a joke to blame “extreme weather” or climate change—America is an ocean away from China and Africa, but for some reason, they wind up here.
This journalist, along with most people posing as journalists in the United States, seem to believe their job is to be campaign advisors or contributors to Biden and other Democrats to push their extremely destructive policies to remake America. Somehow, they seem to have forgotten that their actual job is to report facts to the public so they can become informed, instead of indoctrinated.
Image generated by AI.