How does it feel?

Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 00:30
Updated
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 00:30
Turn in your hymnals to….. Inflation is down. In fact, it is down to four percent from its four-decade high of 9.1 percent last June, writes John Cassidy in The New Yorker. But that seems not to have penetrated public consciousness. President Biden is getting little credit for the improvement, pushed out of the headlines by the Trump indictment. Perhaps also, Cassidy suggests, because there are lags between numerical improvements and people’s perceptions. Biden’s approval ratings have not recovered like the economic indicators. Egg prices have plummeted since avian flu sent them skyrocketing in 2022. But prices are still more than 80 percent higher than in January 2021. “The price of gasoline is another example. At about $3.70 a gallon, the average price across the country has fallen considerably since last year’s peak of $5.10 a gallon,” Cassidy reports. “But the price is still well above its January, 2021, level, which was about $2.50 a gallon.” Other consumer prices remain higher. Consumers still feel pinched: Figures like these leave the White House in a bind. Even though inflation, job growth, and G.D.P. growth have all come in better than expected this year, Administration officials appear to be wary of bellowing the good news about the economy from the rooftops and getting accused of being out of touch. On Tuesday, when the inflation report was released, even the White House didn’t make much of it; the press office put out a statement in Biden’s name which hailed the numbers as “good…