If Republicans are going to make an issue out of the economy, I don’t think it can be pinned down to one issue exactly, and certainly not inflation alone. The Biden team will just point to their misnamed Inflation Reduction Act and then the subsequent but unconnected drop in inflation. And we haven’t hit a clear recession, either. In some ways, Covid already killed many weak businesses.

Instead someone has to name and appropriately describe what this economy feels like. It’s an economy in which interest rates rose precipitously and made mortgages more expensive, but housing prices aren’t coming down. It’s an economy where people are employed but feel like they are treading water or taking on more than they can handle. Despite some recent upward revisions, it’s an economy that hasn’t grown consistently.

I think for many wage earners, the Biden economy feels like an electric hamster wheel. The hamsters aren’t making it go; they are just running faster and faster, trying not to spin out of control.